


Of Hamsters and Men

by RoleplayFanfics



Series: Rewriting Twilight [1]
Category: Twilight (Movies), Twilight Series - All Media Types, Twilight Series - Stephenie Meyer
Genre: Angst, Angst and Humor, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, Carlisle in denial, Carlisle just wanted a happy family, Cartoon references, Consequences, Edward forgetting to blink, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Humor, Hamsters, Heavy Angst, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, Jacob transfers schools, M/M, Movie References, Non-Canon Relationship, Not Canon Compliant, Other, Parody, References to Depression, Twilight Parody, actions have consequences, all the references, gothic literature references, literature references, meme references
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-15
Updated: 2020-05-27
Packaged: 2021-02-27 12:01:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 17
Words: 55,661
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22266802
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RoleplayFanfics/pseuds/RoleplayFanfics
Summary: Silence fell over the cabin once more, as Jacob stared at the glowing dots which were the other man’s eyes. “You know what? From now on, you’re not a vampire. Only Carlisle is allowed to call himself a vampire. You’re a hamster.”This time, the silence was filled with confusion, until Edward finally managed to respond: “a...hamster.”“Yep.”“...Why a hamster.”“Cause you’re stuck like a damned hamster, running around in your wheel of repetition, and knowing nothing of the world. Until you have proven otherwise, you are a hamster.”---Jacob Black transfers schools, only to find himself in the midst of vampire drama, stupid behaviours and desperate people. Also, maybe-... Maybe vampires aren't all as bad as he had been taught to think.
Relationships: Alice Cullen/Jasper Hale, Billy Black/Charlie Swan, Carlisle Cullen/Esme Cullen, Edward Cullen/Bella Swan, Emmett Cullen/Rosalie Hale, Jacob Black/Edward Cullen, Other(s)/Other(s), Richard/Carl
Series: Rewriting Twilight [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1812982
Comments: 81
Kudos: 577





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Another story that started as a joke between us. 
> 
> Co-written by Teddy and Nathan  
> Co-edited by Teddy and Nathan
> 
>  **Important note:**  
>  As we are Swedish and thus don't know the geography of the US very well, it never even occurred to us that Stephanie Meyer would have used a real location as well as a real native tribe for her fictional work. After further research it seems she never even visited Forks in the first place, and has done no substantial research on the area or people living there when writing her books. We have chosen to keep the town name in this canon, because Meyer's Forks is so inaccurate to the real place that her town might as well be a fictional place. However, we do not feel comfortable using the Quileute tribe for our fictional work, and have decided to keep the tribe unspecific, because it is a fictional one in Stephanie Meyer's universe, anything else is quite disrespectful. 
> 
> Seeing that the canon Twilight still uses the tribe in question, we'd much rather you visit [this page here](https://mthg.org/) to learn about the real tribe's current struggles and possibly donate/share to help them.

“How old are you?” 

“Seventeen.”

“I’m not going to ask you something stupid like ‘how long have you been seventeen,’ dipshit, how old are you really?” 

“...” Edward Cullen shrugged. “A little older.” 

“For how long have you been at this school?” Jacob crossed his arms, out of annoyance rather than discomfort. 

“Time is relative.”

Jacob’s eyes narrowed. “How. Long.” 

Edward’s lips thinned. “Four years.” 

“How can you still be flunking Biology B at that point? Are you just doing it to retake years and never have to graduate.” 

“The math part is…”

“There is no math in Biology B.” 

Jacob stared at Edward, and realized that the vampire was constantly forgetting to blink. In fact, he hadn’t blinked once since they started their conversation. 

“...Yes. I suppose I am.”

“Okay, okay, so backing up, you’ve been at the school for four years and only now decided to come out on a field trip?” Jacob wondered if the vampire always was this hard to talk to. As if he had heard him, Edward looked slightly to the side and leaned forward to seem more attentive.

“Yes.”

“Why?” The walking corpse was so making this harder on purpose. 

“I thought it would be fun. A new… change. New environment. Getting to know… people.” Edward spoke, speaking as if he was putting together a last minute confession to a very busy priest. 

“Oh, it has nothing to do with a certain person being on this field trip?” The werewolf had to hold back from growling out the words, Edward was very good at being annoying.

“No. I’m not interested in her anymore.” He smelled like he was lying. Edward frowned, as if the Native American had stated his disbelief out loud. “I’m not. But I figured she might have a point in that I should get out more.”

“So I take it you put in an application for special needs in needing to be isolated from other people during the night, etc?” The werewolf hastily paraphrased the contents of the application. 

“Yes.” Edward nodded. 

The two of them stared at one another from different ends of their small little cabin, Edward still hadn’t blinked once. “So we’re stuck together for this whole field trip?” Jacob summarized. 

The vampire nodded and then stared out the window, still being very unhelpful in actually keeping a conversation going. Jacob considered throwing a pillow on him, in the vain hope that it would hit him and mess up his perfect hair. He noticed the vampire’s nose twitch slightly when he thought of the possible pillow assault. 

Night came about in the little cabin in the woods, and Jacob tried his best to go to sleep. He was not very comfortable being alone with a vampire in a tiny little house, but he was also not feeling entirely threatened by the walking corpse. If either of them attacked or hurt the other, they would break the delicate balance between the vampires and werewolves in Forks. Jacob was quite certain that the corpse was more clever than that, but he wasn’t quite ready to put his trust in him. He kept on getting caught in thoughts about why and what the vampire wanted, until finally, he reached the point where he decided to simply address his concerns with the creature. 

“So what makes you think you have the right to stalk Bella around like this?” 

He heard the vampire move over in his bed by the other side of the cabin, and watched as a head appeared over the covers. Jacob felt a strange sense of victory as he saw the hair out of order. “I’m not stalking her. I… wasn’t stalking her.” His eyes were visible in the dark, burning yellow as he stared, still unblinkingly, at the werewolf. 

“Following somebody around without their knowledge or consent is called stalking.” 

“I was… Not.” Jacob realized that the vampire could see perfectly well in the dark, as Edward stopped speaking when he raised a skeptical eyebrow at him. “Fine, I… suppose I did, but I didn’t really intend for it to go further than just trailing her for a day…” 

“Do you even hear how fucked up that sounds?” Jacob almost spoke before the other man managed to finish his sentence. 

“Yes, I… I know.” The corpse disappeared down under the covers to avoid meeting his eyes. 

“Is all this about following Bella around again?” The werewolf wondered if he could somehow blame the death of the vampire on the cabin coming to life and eating him. Maybe throw him in the lake and let him drown. This conversation was making him angry, despite having promised himself that he wouldn’t be. 

“It’s not.” Edward sounded surprisingly firm when he responded. “I did tell you, I thought I should actually try and participate in school activities, and not just stay at home. Apparently, it’s not good for you.” 

“Well, no shit it not good for you.” Jacob snorted. “Isn’t your dad a doctor or something? Shouldn’t he have told you that you get depressed from staying locked up?” 

“Father… doesn’t really like us going out.” The vampire was smelling of discomfort now, something which caught Jacob’s interest more than he liked to admit it did. 

“...What does that mean?” He turned to actually look at the not-actually-teenager, trying to see Edward’s face in the darkness of the little cabin. Let’s be real, the Cullens were such an odd lot compared to other vampires that anyone would at least be a little curious.

The not-teenager sighed. “It doesn’t mean what you think it does. It’s more that we can get into rather big trouble if we are careless: the hunger might strike, or the sunlight might hit us… It’s just safer to stay at home, where we won’t accidentally cause anything. We are all a family after all, and family stays together.” He finished, rather weakly. 

“So you're telling me that your dad is keeping you locked in for your safety?”

“No, that’s not what I’m saying.” 

“Do you even do anything vampires does? Except for drinking blood, that is.”

Jacob could feel Edward’s scent, and was able to deduce that the vampire was getting annoyed with him now. The werewolf smirked to himself. 

“And what exactly does vampires do, since you know so much.” It wasn’t as much a question as it was a demand for answers. 

“Oh, I don’t know, don’t you have all the time in the world? You could go see things, visit places, meet people, learn stuff. You have the internet, you can take any course or class and learn shit, and you are still going to school, pretending to be a teenager and flunking classes to pretend to be a teenager longer? Don’t you see what a waste of your immortality that is? It’s practically an insult to us mere mortals who only have one life to live.” Jacob had definitely pronounced ‘mere mortals’ in a very sarcastic tone, right there.

Edward grew very silent. So silent that the werewolf though that the vampire wasn’t going to answer him. Finally, he did get a response, in a very small voice. “Carlisle wouldn’t want that.” 

Silence fell over the cabin once more, as Jacob stared at the glowing dots which were the other man’s eyes. “You know what? From now on, you’re not a vampire. Only Carlisle is allowed to call himself a vampire. You’re a hamster.”

This time, the silence was filled with confusion, until Edward finally managed to respond: “a...hamster.” 

“Yep.” 

“...Why a hamster.” 

“Cause you’re stuck like a damned hamster, running around in your wheel of repetition, and knowing nothing of the world. Until you have proven otherwise, you are a hamster.” 

“...Are you telling me to bite something to prove that I’m really a vampire?” The confusion in the vampire’s voice was worth more than a whole steak dinner to Jacob. 

“No, until you have done something which a real vampire would do, such as” he thought fast. “Learnt another language or something, you will be a hamster.”

“So I have to learn how to speak another language to be a vampire?” 

“...Yeah.” 

Silence settled over them once again, this time for much longer, and Jacob was getting sleepy, when Edward broke the silence with his words. “What language?”

“Hngekk?” Came the answer.

“I asked what language vampires speak.” 

“Do you know what time it is?” Jacob had no idea what time it was. 

“Yes. 1:37 AM.” 

“Don’t you sleep?” Jacob meant it as a rhetorical question, he was beyond surprised when the vampire responded in the negative. 

“No, I don’t. So what langu-”

Jacob sat up. “You don’t sleep?” He didn’t wait for an answer. “You mean I’m stuck with you for three days, with you staring at me while I’m sleeping?” 

“I wasn’t planning on staring at you while you sleep. That would be very boring.” 

“...What the heck were you planning on doing during the nights then?” 

“Maybe think about some things. Stare at the ceiling. Consider mortality.” Jacob was pretty sure that the last part was added to sound more vampiery and less hamstery. “Think about what language vampires speak.” 

“...They speak Cornish.” Jacob lied, having recently learnt about extinct languages in English class. “Also, if you can’t sleep, write a book in your head or something. Just… damn, no wonder you’re depressed if that’s the way you live.” 

“Write a book… in my head. I suppose I can try that.” There was a short pause. “What should I write about?”

“For f-… Write about werewolves. Just let me sleep.” 

“But I don’t know…”

“All the better. Good freaking night, Cullen.” 

“Good night, Jacob Black.” 

Jacob groaned at the fact that the tosser over by the other side of the cabin felt the need to use his full name. 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jacob looked behind himself, finding the entirety of his friend group in his shadow. “...Thanks. First I have to sleep with him, now you force me into a canoe with him?”
> 
> “Did you two fuck yesterday?” Carl’s tongue was faster than his brain. The next thing his brain knew, Carl had been pushed off the bridge and floated about on the lake with the help of his life vest. Jacob’s reaction earned the entirety of the class another ten minutes of bridge security. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: Parts which can be interpreted as suicide attempts, following Bella's canon behaviours from the movies/books.

“So, what do you know, Edward Cullen finally joined a field trip! It has never happened before, he is so stalking you, Bella.” The girl next to Bella spoke just loud enough for Jacob to hear them, despite being pretty far away. A werewolf’s hearing really was superior, and he was still struggling to get adjusted to it. 

“Mnm.” Bella was staring at Edward, who was standing by the little bridge on the lake, next to the row of canoes which laid bobbing in the rather still water. Jacob looked from the woman to the vampire, who reached out to poke one of the canoes with his foot. He looked like he might be considering falling into the water, sink to the bottom, and just not get up again. 

“What was it like, sharing a cabin with that freak?” Next to him, one of Jacob’s friends spoke up. He was also staring at Edward, who had now knelt down to poke the canoe with his hand, as if to make sure that it really would float with a person inside of it. 

It was a gray day, then again, every day in Forks was gray, and dark. Sunlight was but a memory imprinted on a postcard to a person who lived in the town. Jacob had thought about the weather as fitting for vampire’s before, but he never realized just how much the lack of sunlight was helping a vampire’s everyday. He wondered if vampires really were in that much danger from the sunlight, or if that was a misconception. Edward had smelled completely fine that morning, and had walked out of the cabin without any fear. 

“Weird. Could have been worse.” The werewolf finally answered his friend. 

“Did he put on makeup before heading out?” Another guy appeared next to his other friend, blinking down at the vampire from on top of their little hill. “Bet the whole cabin smells of his hair products.” 

“He’s so damned creepy… I swear he never blinks. I don’t get what the girls see in him.” The first friend continued. “Anyways, what’s the first thing they are forcing us to do at this hellish field trip?”

“Canoeing.” Jacob responded, still watching Edward Cullen, who had now put his feet down in a canoe, and was letting his legs bobble around in the water together with the boat, while he himself was sat down and staring out over the gray lake. 

A teacher walked up to the vampire, and began chatting with him, leading Jacob to turn back and glance towards Bella. His friends saw the look, and one of them buffed him with his elbow. 

“Dude, that’s perfect. You can get in a canoe all alone with that girl. Super romantic event right there.” 

“Swan boat would probably be more iconic romantic…” One of them added in deep thought. 

“Says who? Nobody likes fucking swan boats, Carl.” 

Carl huffed. “Your mom does, Richard.”  
  
Jacob pulled them apart without even bothering to look at them. He was strong enough to easily separate them without needing to put any effort into the act. “Come on now, the teacher is calling. I don’t want to get stuck with the last, broken canoe.” He walked down the hill, and the class was soon gathered together on the docks. 

The beginning of the day consisted of the teacher going through canoe safety for what felt like an eternity. They had gone over it back in school, but apparently it wasn’t enough, so they all had to sit through it once more. Finally, the teacher got to the part of dividing them up. There were a few single canoes, but the teacher made sure to place people who had never ridden one before together with people who did have some experience, to later place them in double canoes. Jacob reluctantly surrendered to being one of the semi-teachers, and offer himself to ride with someone less experienced. 

“So who here have never ridden a canoe?” The teacher asked, and Jacob felt an animalistic premonition of trouble about to come. Behind him, Edward raised his hand. The teacher looked between Edward and the rest of the boys, who had all sneaked their way to hide behind Jacob while he was busy wrestling with his premonition. “Great, Black and Cullen, you ride together.” 

Jacob looked behind himself, finding the entirety of his friend group in his shadow. “...Thanks. First I have to sleep with him, now you force me into a canoe with him?”

“Did you two fuck yesterday?” Carl’s tongue was faster than his brain. The next thing his brain knew, Carl had been pushed off the bridge and floated about on the lake with the help of his life vest. Jacob’s reaction earned the entirety of the class another ten minutes of bridge security. 

Jacob found himself watching Edward try to put on a life vest. He was clearly struggling with the straps to a point where the werewolf felt bad for him. They were quickly becoming left alone on the bridge, and with all his friends having paddled off, Jacob found it in him to help the vampire with the vest. 

“Have you been on a boat before, at all?” Jacob felt far too awkward with the silence to not speak up when he touched the other man. 

“No, never.” Edward responded, staring out into space, unblinking, like he usually did. 

Jacob’s instincts lead him to ask another question: “do you know how to swim?” 

Immediately he felt a strong scent of shame from the other, and Edward was clearly avoiding to look at him now. “No.”

Well. Fuck. 

“Your life vest will keep you afloat. Worst case I guess I will have to pull you out of there or swim to the shore with you.” He finished securing the life vest and patted the other in the back. Harder than needed. “Come on, you get in first. Take the front.” 

They got in the canoe, he saw to holding it still while the vampire got in, before getting in himself, and so they managed to slowly take off from the bridge. A group had formed on the middle of the lake, waiting for everyone to catch up while staying far enough away from one another as to not collide. Jacob noticed that Edward was a quick learner as they made their way to the center of the lake, it almost seemed as if they had practiced paddling together before. 

“Break,” he told the vampire, who had already begun moving before he finished speaking. Jacob noticed that Bella was watching them from her one-man canoe, and he gave her a small wave with his hand, one he wasn’t sure she noticed. Richard and Carl were stuck in a canoe together, and were already trying to throw water at the other people present without falling into the water themselves. 

When the class had gathered, the teacher’s whistle signaled to them that they should start moving. Jacob opted for them to stay at the back of the group, where there was less risk of them bumping into another canoe and tipping over. He noticed that Bella had opted for the same safety at the back of the group. 

Upon his signal, him and Edward began paddling, but before they managed to get far, Jacob realized that Bella was looking back at them. Looking straight at Edward. The werewolf immediately caught the scent of fear coming from the vampire, and before he managed to realize what was going on, Bella’s canoe tipped over. The next thing he saw was the life vest floating up without her in it. Edward moved as if he was about to jump in after her, and Jacob quickly grabbed hold of the vampire’s shoulder. The walking corpse turned back to him, his eyes yellow instead of the usual brown. 

“I have to go after her!” There was panic in his voice, panic mixed with guilt. 

“You can’t swim, you wouldn’t be able to get to her. She’ll surface any time soon.” Jacob kept his hand on his shoulder. 

“No she won’t…!” The vampire’s panic was rising. 

People had noticed that Bella had tipped over, and were shouting to the teacher. 

“What are you…” Realization hit Jacob like a rock to the face, and he glanced towards the place where she had disappeared. He felt sick to his stomach, as he recalled the way Bella had looked at the vampire before going under. 

Just as he was about to jump in himself, another person up in front dived in, and surface shortly after with Bella’s body. She dragged the girl to the shore, where she was soon joined by a group of people who had managed to get out of their canoes. Bella was breathing and coughing up water, she was clearly alright. With a heavy, disgusted feeling in his chest, Jacob turned to glance at Edward. Guilt, fear and worry were written on his face, and he smelled as if he had almost expected this to happen. Upon turning to look at the coughing girl once more, Jacob noticed that she was staring back at Edward. It was almost laughably obvious that she had gone under with meaning, in what seemed to be an utterly twisted way of getting Edward’s attention. Jacob found that he was biting his lips, staring back at the girl on the shore, who apparently found it fitting to risk her own life and put herself in danger to get the attention of the guy she liked. Part of him didn’t want to believe it; the little he knew of Bella he had always liked, making it all the harder to actually take in what he had just witnessed. 

During lunch, Bella had to stay in the nurse’s cabin, and Edward discreetly slithered off back to his and Jacob’s cabin. Everyone around him seemed to be talking about Bella, and the werewolf noticed that that one guy friend of hers was missing from the dining hall as well. He tried to focus on his lunch, but even then he couldn’t block out their words.

“She jumped.”

“She’s been weird ever since she broke up with Cullen.”

“Remember when she didn’t come to school for like, a month?”

“Cullen looked pretty indifferent, did you see that?”

“Yeah, he sort of looked like he wouldn’t have cared if she had drowned or not.” 

Jacob was getting a headache from their stupidity, and finished his food quickly. His friends looked a little surprised when he rushed up, but still asked him to give Bella their regards, wish a speedy recovery, and all that.  
  
A lot of things had seemed sort of weird ever since he transferred this very semester. Jacob had a nagging feeling that Bella wasn’t making friends very well, at all, despite always being surrounded by at least someone. He had a very hard time putting a finger on it, and had decided that the best thing would probably be to just talk with his friend. They were friends after all, and their families were close, making him that one friend and almost relative who should check up on her after such an incident as this. 

He headed towards the nurse’s cabin with a feeling of uncomfortable dread in his stomach. He couldn’t quite pinpoint what he was dreading, and he didn’t feel like he should have that many reasons to be uncomfortable around Bella, but the way she had stared at the vampire after trying to take her life… The madness, insanity, desire in her eyes. He found himself hesitating outside of the cabin, and as he did, he heard voices from inside. 

“Are you really sure that you’re okay now?” came the voice of a friend of Bella’s, probably the guy who had been missing during lunch. He thought the guy was named Mike. Jacob remembered having gone to see a movie with him and her once, leading to the guy identifying Jacob out as a threat who might take Bella’s affection away from him. As if Bella was some sort of object which could be won by whoever tried the hardest. It had been an altogether very uncomfortable event that ruined most of the fun going to a cinema with friends could have brought with it. 

“I’m fine.” It was almost hard to hear her voice when Bella spoke up. 

Heavy silence lingered for a little bit, until the guy spoke up again, this time with more force. “Is this all about Edward? You have been so, so… reckless since you broke up. It’s really starting to freak me out. You’re not doing this for him, are you?”

Bella was silent in response. Her silence made Jacob’s stomach feel heavy with an ice cold, sinking feeling.  
  
“Bella?” Mike’s thoughts echoed Jacob’s own. 

“It’s okay, I will see him later tonight and talk about things.”

“So you are doing it for him? You know, he really… doesn’t deserve you. Especially not when it’s making you act like this.” Mike’s voice was heavy with emotion. The werewolf could almost smell his worry through the door. 

“He’s not making me do anything. Today was an accident.” Bella’s voice was monotone, as if she was talking from far away, and without being present. “But I will talk to Edward later.”

Jacob removed himself from the door, he had heard enough. He thought of the way the vampire had looked and smelled, the way Bella had looked towards their canoe after being pulled out of the water and… Whatever was going on between the two of them wasn’t healthy, and the werewolf felt the strong need to make sure that they didn’t have that talk, especially so far from modern help, if… He stopped thinking about ‘ifs.’ What was important now was that they didn’t talk alone and without the presence of another person to make sure they didn’t just hurt each other more. He didn’t stop to think about why he should be involved in it, there wasn’t time for that; he did feel responsible for Bella, his father was so very close with her dad and it was just-... he sort of had to. 

The werewolf found himself in front of their cabin, and hurriedly opened the door, startling the vampire who had been sitting in a corner, reading a book titled _American Gods_. He looked up at Jacob, and immediately identified that something was wrong. 

“You’re not going to meet her tonight.” 

“I...what, meeting who?” Edward stared at him, and before he managed to answer, the vampire continued. “Meeting Bella? No, I haven’t arranged or agreed to any meeting, did she say that?” 

Jacob stared at him. The way the other had just answered all his questions without knowing what he had heard in the nurse’s cabin defied explanation. There was only one answer to the other’s behavior, because Jacob would have known if Edward had been there to listen in on the talk, like he had. 

Jacob thought: _He can read my mind._

Edward’s scent and expression made it clear that he had heard him. 

Once again, they stared at once another, until Jacob made a face and spoke up. “You know what, we will deal with that later. First of all, you’re not meeting Bella today. Tell her that you are busy.” 

“But I’m not bus-”

“Now you are.” 

Edward stared at him, ever unblinking. “Alright. I see I am apparently going out with you and… the boys. Mind telling me exactly what ‘skinny-dipping’ is?”


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _I can’t believe I’m being given sex lessons by a vampire,_ thought Jacob.
> 
> Edward seemed to shrink slightly. “If it’s bothering you…”

So here they were: a group of four guys who sort of knew one another, a newly transferred werewolf, and… Edward. Edward Cullen. Edward my-hair-is-holier-than-thou Cullen. The guys were very skeptical to having the tosser join in on their guy-fun. It wasn’t gay if they knew each other, after all, they had seen each other naked after gym class, but it quickly got weird when the continuously staring and lanky stranger of a schoolmate joined them. Jacob was able to feel their scents, thus being told their feelings. For a second, he thought that it was probably better that Edward couldn’t smell their discomfort, but the werewolf had no less than thought that before he realized that Edward could in fact hear their thoughts. 

“So, basically, he’s going to be hanging out with us for the rest of the trip.” Jacob stated, as if he had actually presented evidence or reasoning as to why they should accept the vampire into their midst. 

“...Okay.” Carl said.

 _Why_ , Richard’s eyes said.

Edward looked like he was about to head back to the cabin. 

The werewolf sighed. “Did we really sneak out and head to the lake only to stand here staring at one another? I for one am going to swim.” He pulled off his shirt and hung it up in a nearby tree, then quickly removed the rest of his clothes and headed towards the lake. Jacob didn’t see it, but the guys™ and Edward looked after him as he strode to the water in his birthday suit. 

Jacob used to be bothered by his own body, then again, who wasn’t; however, after becoming a werewolf, he didn’t quite feel as bothered by it anymore. It was hard to care too much about small imperfections when one could easily turn into a fluffy beast and just run around until the point of exhaustion. Not that that was the only training Jacob did, one didn’t get to his level of muscular without putting the effort in. Besides, canine nature brought with it excessive amounts of energy that had to go somewhere. 

Jacob dived into the water, and began swimming. It was strange to swim as a human instead of a wolf. When he surfaced again, the rest of the guys™ had joined him into the water. Even the vampire had waddled over to the edge, and was standing with water up to his calves. He looked out of place, and ever so slightly cold, but he did not look small or apologetic where he stood looking at the guys™ who were daring each other to go into the deeper parts of the lake. 

After a while of swimming, Carl realized that the vampire wasn’t joining them in the water, and called out to him: “yo, Cullen? Scared of water?”

Jacob looked over to see what the yelling was about. 

“No, not really.” Came the disinterested answer. 

“Then why are you standing up there staring? Come inside the water.” Richard floated back, letting his feet bob about in the water. 

The vampire was silent, then heaved a subtle sigh, and stepped deeper into the water, where he was promptly attacked by water from all sides, thrown at him by the guys™. Jacob blinked as Edward removed his hair from his eyes, said hair hanging all over his face at that point. The guys laughed and one of them slapped Edward on the back. 

“So your hair does come down! Sick, I thought it would just stay like that even in water.” Jacob thought the guy who spoke was named Finn. 

Edward, ever unblinking, looked back at the guy. “Of course it does. It mostly looked like that thanks to hair wax.” 

“That can’t be all you’re using!”

“I have thick hair, I only started using wax to combat bed hair.” The vampire nodded shortly, sweeping his hair back. As he did, the moonlight appeared from behind the clouds, and hit him in an almost perfect way, making the vampire seem unearthly, mysterious, and quite so attractive. In a sense, his skin almost seemed to sparkle, but it was ever so faint that it was probably just a trick of the eye. Jacob could smell the attraction from at least two of the five guys. 

“Fucking styler!” One of the guys™ broke out laughing, pushing some more water at Edward, who covered his eyes with his already lift hand. 

“Please Tyler, I don’t control the moonlight.” That was the first time Jacob ever saw the vampire smile. It was also the first time he wondered if Edward knew he was posing, or if the universe simply tended to align in ways which made him appear more attractive than he was. 

After the guys™ and Edward finished bathing, they all headed back to their respective sleeping quarters, with the two supernatural creatures walking towards their secluded cabin on their own. Jacob hadn’t bothered to put anything but his underwear on, and Edward had apparently decided that his shirt was all he needed to wear during the walk back. They walked in silence, with Jacob feeling like he was supposed to say something. 

“You really don’t have to.” The mind reading hamster spoke up, out of the blue. 

“What?” The answer was automatic, as was him turning to look at the vampire. 

“You don’t have to think of anything to say. I had fun, I think.” 

“You think.” 

“Yes, I do in fact think.” 

“Oh, you know what I mean, dipshit.” 

Once again, he saw the vampire smile. Not big, not too gently or kindly or widely. He just smiled, like any other person might when they found themselves amused. The smile didn’t show the not-a-teenager’s teeth. As Jacob looked at the other smile, he was overwhelmed by the sudden realization that he could kiss him. Just… lean forward, let their lips connect, give him a kiss. Just like that. The impulse was over before he knew it, and he realized that he couldn’t just actually kiss somebody out of the blue. Yet, they were alone, the moon made the vampire look alarmingly alluring, and his lips seemed soft. Hastily, the werewolf looked away, very conflicted to why he would think such a thing about someone like Edward. It wasn’t just that he was a vampire, it was just-... unexpected, uncalled for, shit like that. 

“It’s alright. A lot of people have that impulse. I’m flattered, but you really don’t have to be embarrassed about it.” 

... _Accursed mind-reading hamster_ , Jacob thought. Out loud, he said: “I don’t know what you are talking about. Also, is that really a thing?” 

“Of course. Hormonal teenager are always like that. Thinking about kisses and sex and the like.” Edward stopped outside of their cabin, and unlocked the door with they keys he pulled from his own pocket. He walked in first and locked the door behind the werewolf. “You should have heard what your friends thought when they saw you naked.” 

Jacob turned on the lights, and turned to stare at the other. “...Excuse me?” 

The vampire threw his pants over a beam up in the relatively low ceiling, spreading them out to dry after having laid in the wet grass. “I thought you could smell it. They are all very attracted to you, well, not all of them sexually, but at least two of them. One of them is very, very jealous.” He pulled his shirt off and threw it up next to the pants, now effectively standing naked. Jacob quickly looked away and began looking for his pajamas, trying very hard to not think of the naked person behind him. “It’s curious, like that,” Edward continued, “when men are attracted to men, they either react with silent adoration or hostility. There doesn’t seem to be anything in between. At least for teenagers, adults are a bit different.” 

“Uhh… And why was I given that much attention by all of them?” Jacob couldn’t find his goddamn pajamas. No matter how hard he looked. 

“It’s very simple.” He heard Edward walk to his own bag and search through it, on the other side of the room. “Men are taught that your appearance is what they are all supposed to be. The body they see in commercials, the body movie stars all have. You’re tall, strong, muscular and tanned. They feel threatened and attracted by it, because that is what they are taught to think is ideal and attractive. From what I have experienced, a lot of men who are interested in sex with other men either find attraction in the smallest or the largest of their associates or classmates. Just like women are taught that they should have large breasts to be attractive, men are taught that a big penis is attractive. I’ve heard a lot of young men thinking about having sex with the guy they single out to have the biggest dick.” Edward had found his own pajamas, and pulled it on. “In fantasies, anal sex doesn’t hurt, therefore they neglect to think harder of the problems a bigger penis prompts for homosexual intercourse.” 

Jacob flipped his whole bag over in his search for his pajamas. “Are you dressed yet?” 

“...Oh, yes, I am.” 

He glanced back and found Edward sitting on his bed, looking at him. “...It’s actually surprisingly interesting to hear. You don’t smell like you’re making it up, so… uh, is it really true that teenagers think about sex that often?” He hadn’t interacted a lot with people, that wasn’t a lie, and much like the vampire, the teenagers at school were a little bit of a mystery to him, only ever so slightly. 

“Yes and no.” The vampire responded. “Your pajamas are on your bed.” He continued by pointing out the location of the clothes, and then returned to speak on the topic of teenagers and sexual matters. “It’s not as much thinking about having sex as thinking of the possibility of having sex. Just like when you thought of kissing me, you weren’t really thinking of kissing me, but thinking of the possibility of it happening.” 

“You’re not… quite making sense.” Jacob switched underwear and pulled his pajamas on. 

“There are different ways to think about things. What if I told you to think of yourself riding an elephant, you are simply imagining yourself sitting on an elephant. But if I told you to really imagine riding an elephant: the way it’s skin would feel against your legs and hands, the way it sways when it walks, the way it would smell, the power of the animal under you when it breathes in and out… Most people just think of sex, not what real intercourse would actually be like. Boys tend to be more… keen on wanting to stick their dicks in something. Girls tend to be more… imagining what it is like to really be wanted by somebody, physically. This isn’t a universal truth, just what I have gathered over many years of reading people’s minds. Even then, it doesn’t apply to everyone.” 

_I can’t believe I’m being given sex lessons by a vampire_ , thought Jacob.

Edward seemed to shrink slightly. “If it’s bothering you…”

“No, not really. It’s just… I guess you’ve just been acting so distant and now you’re suddenly really talkative.” He sat down on his bed, facing the vampire. “You were sort of, I don’t know, good with the other guys as well? I wasn’t expecting that.” 

“I’m… talkative? Hm… I never considered myself to be. I usually don’t have a lot of things to talk about.”

“Suppose you actually sound your age for once, old man.” Jacob grinned.

Edward stared at him, ever unblinking. “Are you accepting me as a vamp-”

“Nope. Still a hamster.” 

“...Well then. As for your friends, it’s very easy to appease them when you know exactly what they don’t want you to do. I knew I was walking into them planning on throwing water at my hair, which apparently bothers them for some reason, and when I wasn’t acting like it was a big deal, I’d already overcome most of their prejudice.” The vampire summarized with a disinterested look on his face. 

“Okay, but how the heck can you fail so badly with Bella when you are apparently this good with people?” Jacob couldn’t hold back the outburst. “You can’t even remember to blink, how can you be that clever and still so incredibly socially awkward?” 

Edward stared at him. Then he blinked. Like a theater actor blinking to a group of small children during a play, he blinked. Then he stared for two seconds, and blinked again. He was about to do it again when Jacob shook his head. “You know what, just… keep on staring until you’ve figured out to blink like a normal person. No, not like that either.” Edward had started rapidly blinking, like he had gotten the Sahara Desert thrown in his face. He stopped when told to.

“It gets… tiresome being perfect.” Jacob raised an eyebrow at the other supernatural creature’s words. “I don’t mean it like you think I do. In the beginning, I tried very hard to appease. I would easily adapt to every person who I met, saying what they wanted me to say, speaking in whatever manner was expected of me… And still they would dislike me. The smallest thing could become a problem based on them wanting it to become a problem. Sometimes they would leave and meet me two days later with the accusations of having been manipulated by me.” He paused for a moment, blinked, and then continued. 

“I found that the impression of me different from person to person in such high changes that I seemingly didn’t have a personality. I realized that my way of integrating with people ment I lost my identity in the process. I tried to be so many things, making them all like me but… Well, people don’t say what they think, their thoughts changes, their ideas can sometimes shift overnight. It’s easy to make a small group of teenager’s accept me for the moment, but to be one of them, I have to continuously change while trying to keep a personality which they all accept and welcome. It would be false, it would be temporary, and it wouldn’t be me.” 

The werewolf hadn’t quite been prepared for such a heavy answer. “You sort of make it sound like you don’t have a personality at all…” He finally confessed to the other. 

Edward shrugged. “I should have, and I most likely do, but… When I’m in crowds of people, it’s hard knowing where I end and they begin. I hear everything, I hear everyone, I mostly focus on trying to separate myself from their chaos.”

“...But you have stuff you like too, right? Like, things you think are fun, interests, uh… you know, things.” Very supportive, Jacob. Very clear and easily understandable. Yep. 

Edward smiled again, one of those small smiles which Jacob now noticed didn’t reach his eyes. “I’ll think about it. For now, it’s getting sort of late, and you should probably rest. We’re getting up early tomorrow. They are supposed to take us around the forest for field studies, if you forgot.”

“I didn’t forget.” He had completely forgotten.

“Good night.” Edward reached for his book, which had been left on the nightstand. It was still a copy of _American Gods_. 

“Night, you mind reading hamster.” 

The noise which the vampire made might have been a laughter.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “...For a while, it felt good. The silence was calming, it made me curious and interested. She didn’t seem to mind things about me, and she called me out on being a vampi-”
> 
> “Hamster.” 
> 
> “...Hamster, rather easily.” 
> 
> Jacob couldn’t stop himself from speaking up. “You guys are actually really bad at hiding it.” 
> 
> Edward frowned. “How so?” 

Jacob stared up at the ceiling above his bed. Well, not his bed, the little excuse of a bed in the cabin. For one more night would they remain out on this trip. For him it was generally alright, there were still days left until full moon, and he wasn’t exactly badly off aside from maybe having a bit of a hard time concentrating during the longer lectures.  
  
He felt like he really needed to do something about the situation with Bella. He felt like it was somehow his responsibility.  
  
Ever since his father had mentioned her involvement with the Cullen vampire, and pointed out both to Charlie Swan and Jacob that Edward Cullen was likely to hurt and damage Bella somehow, Jacob had sort of been on his guard. Still, by the time he had actually transferred schools, almost ready to attack the vampire for any sign of hurting his childhood friend and friend of the family, the vampire had already broken up with Bella. Jacob had practically been ready to fight the vampire if needed, but it had seemed like it wasn’t needed. To him it had seemed like Edward was already on the verge of breaking the rules of the treaty.  
  
Vampires were uncontrollable monsters, there really wasn't much more to that fact. They are infected post-human beings that murder and eat humans, which by fact would make them both monsters and cannibals. It was strange how werewolves often got the blame for being the uncontrollable ones, seeing that they didn’t inherently hurt humans, and didn’t have a need for it. Jacob had been taught that he would never want to have anything to do with vampires, and should always be on guard around them. Heh, perhaps hamsters did suit them, hamsters are, after all, cannibals too. 

And yet when he glanced over at the tosser of a hamster, whose hair had once again risen to its natural state of Godly perfection despite last night’s adventures in the lake, something felt off. Edward was clearly a person; a very interesting person given the fact of how long he had lived, and everything he had learnt through his psychic abilities. It was really hard seeing him as some sort of beast when seeing him guilty, scared and generally harmless around people. The Cullens didn’t eat people, so it wasn’t like Jacob could fault him for being a murderer, at least not during his own lifetime. 

No matter how much he wanted to villainize the vampire, after yesterday’s events it was very clear that something was happening which was different from the story of keeping-Bella-safe-from-her-stalker, which he had believed to be the truth.

Whatever it was Bella had attempted yesterday really wasn’t something which could be excused for any reason. No matter Jacob’s sense of responsibility, the act disgusted him beyond measure, and made him realize that there might not be anything he could do to save someone prepared to go that far; she would need professional help. He-.. he should probably ask the vampire what happened, to actually find out more of the situation; Bella was clearly too keen on lying about it all for him to be able to trust her words.  
  
It was-... making him very anxious, he’d rather not think about it first thing in the morning.

He glanced at the vampire again, who was still reading _American Gods._

“So… what happens to you in sunlight?” He wasn’t just trying to escape his thoughts, he was genuinely curious. To his surprise, he saw the vampire’s lips form a thin line. He could smell how much the guy did not want to talk about it. 

“Nothing special.” 

_Liar._

He heard Edward click his tongue, and lower himself closer to the book, as if to block Jacob out. 

“So what happens? Do you go Dracula and disappear in a puff of smoke?” Jacob continued, as he crawled out of bed and began stretching to wake his body up. 

“Sunlight was never deadly to Dracula, that is a misconception made by modern interpreters.” Edward turned a page. 

“...Are you older than Dracula?” Jacob asked innocently. 

“...Dracula was released in 1897.” The vampire wasn’t looking at him, he was rather sure that the other had stared at the same place on the page for a while now. 

“Why have you memorized that again?”

“I… I…” Edward was silent, contemplating his answer. “I needed it to win an argument.” 

_Oho_ , thought Jacob. To his great amusement, Edward rolled his eyes.

“Don’t you have a breakfast to get to?” 

_Ohoho, annoyance. Take that, you hamster._

“Just… go get breakfast…” 

Jacob got dressed and before he left the cabin, he looked back at the other man. “I’m not done asking what happens to you in sunlight.” It looked like Edward seriously considered disappearing in under the blankets. 

It was a very rainy day, when one looked up at the sky, it seemed almost impossible to imagine that the sun was up there somewhere, shining ever on. The entirety of the Biology B students had gathered in a little group, while biology A and C were gathered in different groups. It amused the guys™ greatly that Edward was in their group. It made Jacob feel a lot better to know that Edward was with them, while Bella was in group C. With their umbrellas in hand, the Biology B group set out into the forest. 

Bringing a group of high school students out in the forest and expecting them to listen and pay attention was like trying to herd a flock of cats. Some of them listened while the teacher was talking, but most of them were more keen on making noise and talking about other things. Had the weather been better, Jacob was certain that most of the guys™ would have tried to climb rocks and trees. Edward seemed as distant as always, but when the guys did address him, he responded. 

It only so happened that Jacob and Edward ended up walking a little behind the group, Jacob because his increased hearing was quickly causing him headaches when he remained in the middle of a crowd, and Edward because his social ineptitude made him think it was a good idea to straggle behind the crowd. As they walked, Jacob caught the scent of a rabbit, and automatically turned towards the smell, his instincts taking over, and he was ready to chase after it. He hadn’t been a werewolf for long, the hunting instincts when out in the forest, were so strong that he still struggled to keep them in check. 

He turned very quickly, but the vampire’s reflexes where more than good, and Edward caught his arm before he had managed to take a whole step away from the path. The grip on his arm was strong, stronger than a man by the name of Edward should be. The vampire, who until that point had seem comparatively weak and docile, looked just a bit more dangerous, a bit more predatory. Like seeing a beast from afar, and having it stare into your face, ready to leap and bite. Jacob felt his heart beat faster, an instinctual reaction to being caught by a predator, as adrenaline pumped through his blood to allow him to fight. 

Edward let go of him, and as if somebody had flicked a switch, he looked docile again. More hamster and less vampire. “I smelled it too. Let’s not chase rabbits today.” Jacob nodded, slowly, in response, and fell back into walking next to the other. Yet it took a little longer for him to relax again, after seeing just how fast and strong the vampire was. 

Group B came back to the cabin site cold, drenched, and generally unhappy. They had cut the exploring of the woods short, giving the students an hour until lunch. Most scurried towards their cabins to get changed and heated up. Jacob told his friends that he would see them at lunch, and headed back to the cabin he was staying in. 

Edward smelled slightly… antsy. The werewolf looked towards the other, uncertain if he should mention anything or not. In the end, his need to know made him speak up: “okay, so, I think it might be time for you to tell me why you’re actually here. Please, no more bullshit about ‘doing it for your health,’ alright?” 

The vampire hesitated, but then slowly nodded, about to give in to the demand. “...Alright. It has to do with Bella, don’t think like that before I’ve finished… Please.” Jacob was almost a little shocked by the way the other pleaded to him. Almost pleaded. Mostly pleaded. 

They both changed into different clothes, and Edward walked over to sit down in Jacob’s bed, much to the werewolf’s surprise. He didn’t dislike having the vampire that close, he had expected to so it was quite a surprise, especially since the other’s display of strength was still fresh in his memory. He scooted back to lean against the wall, while Edward sat by the edge of the bed. 

“Well? What is so special about Bella?” That sounded a tad meaner than Jacob had meant for it to. He figured Edward would understand, and didn’t bother to correct himself. 

Edward took a deep breath. “I can’t read her thoughts.” 

“...You can’t? Why?”

“That is what I wanted to know as well. I have never met somebody who I couldn’t read before. It was… new. It felt so very curious to me, she was just… silent. I wanted to know more. I wanted to know more about her.”

“Which is why you stalked her?”

“Nhn… I didn’t… plan on letting her see me.” Edward was avoiding his eyes now. 

“That doesn’t make it alright.” 

“I know, I know…” He sighed, shaking his head while pulling his legs up, making himself look very weak in the process. “I shouldn’t have done it. But I did. I regret it now, but I can’t undo the past. I won’t do such a thing again.” 

Jacob felt like the other might be apologizing a little too much at this point. Well, he had at the very least learned that lesson, it felt a tad cruel to prolong this particular line of questioning. “Alright, so, back to Bella. What happened between you two?” 

“...For a while, it felt good. The silence was calming, it made me curious and interested. She didn’t seem to mind things about me, and she called me out on being a vampi-”

“Hamster.” 

“...Hamster, rather easily.” 

Jacob couldn’t stop himself from speaking up. “You guys are actually really bad at hiding it.” 

Edward frowned. “How so?” 

“Well,” the werewolf began. “You are only keeping to yourselves, barely participating in anything. You forget to blink, and you stare creepily at people. Your siblings all act like they are far too old to be in school, and the only times you talk to people is to correct them on things they are wrong about. Oh, and I’ve caught the twitchy one looking like he’s about to eat people at least seven times in the cafeteria. And I’ve been attending your school for like, two months.”

“But nobody ever thinks that we are vampires.” Edward objected, meekly. 

“Your only saving grace is that people nowadays would sooner think you are crazy vampire-pretenders, than real vampires.”

The corpse in front of him smirked a small smirk. “You called us vampires.”

“Oh shit, hamsters.” Jacob laughed. “But you see my point, right? It takes a real delusional teenager to think that you are actually vampires.” 

“So I’ve learnt…” Edward actually sounded a bit distressed as he admitted that. “Either way, I thought Bella was different, but I was noticing that she didn’t seem… scared. She began admiring us, admiring being a vampire. She was dragged into a conflict which had nothing to do with her, and instead of involving us or trying to remove herself from the conflict, she went straight into the hands of another vampire, to die in my stead.”

“She… what?” Jacob felt colder now than he had outside in the wet forest, and he stared at the other with an expression filled with disbelief and shock. 

“She planned on sacrificing herself for me, a person whom she really didn’t know very well, based on feelings of love. She was almost killed, because she decided to be a martyr.” There was a sadness in the vampire’s eyes, a sadness which seemed much too old for his young face. “After that, after almost dying, she became obsessed with the idea of becoming a vampire. At first, I didn’t realize that it was an obsession, but it was bothering me that she kept on asking. After all I had told her, she still wanted the same undead life as mine. It bothered me, but since I couldn’t read her thought, I assumed myself to be needlessly paranoid.”

“And that’s why you broke up with her?” Edward didn’t smell like he was lying, and Jacob found himself wanting more information before he knew what to say in response to what he was hearing about the girl he had previously thought so highly of. 

“...It was part of it, yes, but the thing that made me decide to break up with her had to do with her birthday. My father decided that she would probably be really happy to celebrate her birthday with us. During the package opening, she cut herself on the paper, and Jasper lost control over himself.”

“Sorry, Jasper is the big one or the twitchy one?” 

“Twitchy.” 

“Ah, alright.” 

“He lost control over himself, and attacked her. We managed to subdue him before he managed to cause any harm to her, but when I turned back to look at her, she looked… Excited. There was something in her eyes, a sign of thrill. She had been frightened, but then, she looked like she had enjoyed it. As if being in a room full of predators was fun to her. When I realized that she didn’t seem to understand the danger she was in, even after having almost died last year, I understood that I had made a mistake. She had learnt nothing, in fact, I fear that her thrill was all the stronger because she had learnt that she would be saved from danger at the end.”

Edward turned silent, looking away from Jacob. The werewolf bit his lower lip. He didn’t want to believe these things about Bella, but the vampire was clearly telling the truth. It was even easier to believe as he thought of the way the girl had looked at Edward after deliberately tipping over her canoe into the lake. Bella had smelled sick ever since he met her as a werewolf, and he thought it had to do with her feeling bad after the breakup, but now, he was wondering if she might have smelled that sick all along. It wasn’t uncommon for animals, especially canines, to notice when humans were bothered, unstable or hurting from something, it came off as a smell of sickness, like something was wrong. He decided to ask his father about it, upon returning home. Surely, Billy would know. As he thought of his dad, he recalled something which had happened when he was much younger. He remembered Billy explicitly forbidding him from telling Bella anything about the werewolves and the like. It was possible that his dad had distrusted the girl from the very beginning. 

“Maybe your father was right in that she should be kept away from these things.” Ah, yeah, that tosser was still a mind reader. “It clearly wasn’t good for her…” 

“...Yeah. No, you two really don’t seem like you should be together.” Jacob agreed. 

To his comment, Edward gave a small smile. “I didn’t think so either. Yet, what bothered me further was that my family handled it very… strangely. Only me, Rosalie and Carlisle seemed bothered by the event. The others acted like it was almost expected and couldn’t be helped. I don’t think I have to remind you about the werewolf/vampire treaty? If one of us in the family attacks a human, or kills them, we will have broken the treaty, and will be killed by your tribe. I remember Carlisle working for years for the treaty to be established, and it was very uncomfortable to realize that more than half my family were willing to throw it away based on this girl whom none of us quite knew. It made me feel like I had to break contact with Bella completely, as to not let her ruin everything my father worked so hard for.”

“...Wow.” Jacob couldn’t think of anything other to say for the moment. He felt strangely angry, mostly towards Bella, but also towards the vampires who thought so little of the treaty which allowed them to live in Forks in the first place. 

Clearly, the situation was a mess, far more a mess than what it had looked like from the outside. Actually, Jacob felt a little ashamed. Scratch that, he felt really ashamed. The situation was clearly a lot more complicated than he had thought, than his friends have thought, than mostly every teenager at school who gave a shit, which was a whole lot of them, had thought. The students had some sort of excuse, they didn’t know about the vampires; Jacob didn’t have that excuse. It had been so easy to villainize the vampire as the source of fault, the only source of fault, and to think that everything would be fine if he was removed. Edward was clearly more than just ‘a vampire,’ he was clearly more than Bella’s ‘ex,’ he was more than just a problem. It really was easy to forget that everyone had feelings, even those you didn’t know or care about personally. Bella had clearly hurt Edward a lot, and she was continuously hurting him in a sense Jacob didn’t even want to begin imagining; he didn’t want to even imagine being in Edward’s place of having someone go to such lengths for his attention. It made his stomach twist. He felt bad for the vampire. It made him wonder if Bella had ever seen Edward as a person, rather than a fantasy. She didn’t seem the slightest bit aware that Edward was a person with a life that didn’t have to only revolve around her.  
  
“... Thank you.” 

Right, mind reader. Jacob really didn’t know what to say to that, and as he knew, that the walking corpse knew, that he knew, that both of them knew that Edward already knew he didn’t know what to say, he opted to say something different altogether.  
  
“So, I guess you’ve learnt the lesson of not dating people whose minds you can’t read,” he said, forcing a bit of an amused look on his face. 

Edward gave him a look that made it so clear that the hamster was confused, that Jacob didn’t even have to consider the smell. This time he blinked a few times. It almost looked natural. “Is that the lesson we have learned? People generally don’t tend to want their minds read.”  
  
“But you’re a mind reader.”  
  
“Yes?”  
  
“You’re not going to stop being a mind reader.”  
  
“... Most probably not, no.”  
  
“Isn’t it better to find someone who you can date, despite being a mind reader? You’re clearly sort of reliant on being one, which I assume will make it harder for you to manage without it. It’s kind of… eh, just who you are I guess.” What was he even doing? Was it a pep-talk? He thought he was making sense. Still, Edward didn’t look convinced so he felt sort of obliged to continue.  
  
“I don’t know about you, but I don’t think I could date anyone who wouldn't know that I am a werewolf. I couldn’t imagine that working out, and I wouldn’t want to trick someone; it’s part of who I am.” His lips quirked into a bit of a smile, “which sort of makes my options kinda limited.” 

They looked at each other. They stared at each other. 

“You… should go to lunch,” Edward said.  
  
“Right,” Jacob followed up. He had totally not forgotten about lunch. He got up, but stopped at the door, turning back towards Edward. “You want me to bring anything back?” he asked.  
  
“... You’re joking.”  
  
“I am joking,” Jacob confirmed and disappeared out the door.  
  
Before he closed the door, he heard Edward’s reply, “that was a little funny.”


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “It’s alright, I’m clearly the one doing the thinking in this relationship.” The werewolf’s grin was big as he looked down upon the shorter man. 

Edward joined the guys™ after lunch for afternoon classes. The teachers were clearly disappointed to have had to move their lectures inside and not out in nature, but they made do with what they had. They were also most probably aware that things would end up like this, after all, they had lived in Forks for longer than the teenagers had. The guys™ had accepted letting Edward hang out with them, and they let him join in by their table without the least bit of complaining. During them all working together, Jacob began noticing that Edward was having some slight trouble, some sort of discomfort, over-concentrated behaviour and sometimes vague hints of distress. It wasn’t noticeable on his face, but the werewolf’s nose could smell that something was up. 

_Hey_ , he thought, trying to get Edward’s attention. _What’s wrong? You seem kind of, well, off. Everything going okay?_

The vampire looked up at him, then shook his head. Much to Jacob’s surprise, he slid the paper he was working with over towards the werewolf. As he did, he kept his finger on a word. 

_Amanita muscaria_ , Jacob read in his head. 

“Ah, the fly agaric then.” Edward mumbled in such a subtle voice that only Jacob could hear it. He glanced down at the paper, watching as the vampire doodled a little drawing of a mushroom with what was most likely a fly on top of it. The drawing wasn’t that good, but clearly recognizable for what it was. 

The werewolf looked at him. _Are there any other words you have problems with?_ To his great surprise, he felt the scent of embarrassment from the vampire. Jacob glanced down at the other’s paper, only to have Edward hide it from him with his elbow. _...Ed. What are you hiding from me?_

The vampire glanced at him, then sighed, removing his arm from the paper. When the werewolf looked down, he found a lot of misspellings on the paper, it seemed that the other had problems with any word which had longer consonant clusters, and which was spelled differently from what it sounded like. Jacob licked his lips, looking up to find the sharp eyes of the vampire staring at him. _You have dyslexia?”_ He asked in his thoughts. 

Slowly, Edward nodded. 

Jacob would certainly not have expected such a thing from a vampire, even more so when he had seen Edward read so much. He knew a lot of werewolves who had the disorder, so he knew that it was commonly connected to ADHD, which many werewolves had as well. Edward didn’t seem to have the later diagnose. The vampire, who heard him thinking about it shook his head to confirm that he did indeed not have ADHD. _Still_ , Jacob continued, _it’s not something all that uncommon. Someone told me that it’s the most common reading disorder, affecting around 3-7% of the entire population. You know what, just tell me if you need any help, and I’ll spell the word out for you in my head._ He grinned, and he was quite certain that Edward was turning ever so slightly red in the face, very vaguely, but it was still visible against such pale skin. _Oh yeah, Ty has it too. Dyslexia, that is._

The rest of the lesson passed with Edward smelling a lot happier than Jacob could recall smelling him before. Every now and then, Edward would push his elbow and point to a word, often latin ones, and Jacob would spell it out to him. Sometimes, the vampire would draw a little doodle on top of the word, to remember what it meant if he had to reread it later. 

When they later left for dinner, Jacob and Edward walked a little behind the rest, leaving the werewolf room to chat with the other. “So, hey, it’s pretty convenient, actually. Being able to talk to each other without using words. You reading my mind, and me being able to smell what you feel.”

The vampire smiled again, a small smile, but a surprisingly honest one. “I suppose that is strangely convenient. It has always been more of a problem, it feels so curious to find it an asset all of a sudden.” 

Jacob grinned widely at that. “Oh, mind if I ask you a question?” He suddenly remembered something he hadn’t been able to ask before.

Edward, having read his thoughts, and thus knew what he wanted to ask, skipped replying to the polite question, and went straight to answering the real question. “Reading is easier for me than spelling. I am better with works of fiction rather than academic work, due to it being easier to follow. If you read a sentence in a novel, it will in most cases use common words to convey a story which it expects you to want to know. Academic work does not take your convenience into consideration, it is there to inform you of a topic, and it is on you to make certain you understand it.” He hesitated and then continued speaking. “I think it is a lot easier to read older English. It was what I grew up with, and even if I was struggling, a lot of the words have become more familiar to me over the time. Reading used to be one of the few things to do back in the days.”

 _Okay, old man._

Edward huffed. 

“Did you know that there are fonts specifically created to make it easier for dyslexic people to read them?” Jacob asked, having nodded during the other’s talking to make sure that the hamster knew he was listening. 

“...Excuse me?” Edward looked up at him, blinking slowly. Just a little too slow to look natural. 

“Yeah, Sam told me about it.” Edward nodded, he knew who Sam was based on reading the werewolf’s thoughts. “There is one specific for dyslexic people, called Open Dyslexic, I think. Oh yeah, Comic Sans is apparently really useful too. He also said to increase spacing and such when you write on computer, to more easily separate the characters and words. Is it easier to write on the computer than by hand?” 

“Yes, it is.” The vampire confirmed. “So you are saying that I should try out different fonts on the computer and see if it helps?” 

“Yeah, you can ask Ty too, he probably knows this stuff better than I do.” 

“It’s not like I could hand something in, if it was written in Comic Sans…” The vampire mumbled, avoiding to look at the taller man. 

“You can still write it in Sans, and then change it to Times New Roman or so before handing it in.” 

“Oh,” said Edward, looking much like a man who had just been slapped in the face with a wet towel. “I suppose I didn’t think of that.” 

“It’s alright, I’m clearly the one doing the thinking in this relationship.” The werewolf’s grin was big as he looked down upon the shorter man. 

“I… You… mhn.” Oho, it seemed he had effectively quieted the vampire down completely. As he thought so, Edward pushed him with his hand, not hard enough to budge him, but enough that he could at least feel it. “Don’t get so cocky now.” 

_Too late._


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> H-uh, sup…” Mike began, trying to lean to the side enough to be able to see inside the cabin. Jacob found it rather rude, but he was big enough to block the view of the cabin for the other. “I didn’t know you were in this cabin, is Cullen there?” 
> 
> “Yeah, he is.” Mike smelled confrontential, something which made it very hard for Jacob not to not to scrunch his nose. “Why?” 
> 
> “Is Bella here?” 

After dinner, Jacob returned to the cabin, and found Edward reading on his bed. The vampire looked up. “I checked what font was used for this book, turns out it's a specific font which seems to only be used by this book, or for the company.” 

“How long did you wait to tell me that?” Jacob chuckled as he walked over and sat down on Edward’s bed, leaning over to check inside the book. 

“Don’t read, you will spoil yourself.” The vampire pulled the book back. 

The werewolf chuckled again. “I won’t understand anything, even if I read now.” He leaned closer again. “Besides, I wasn’t planning on reading it in the first place.” 

“Oh.” Edward sounded disappointed. 

“...Do you want me to read it?” 

“I… suppose. I was planning on lending it to you.” 

Jacob smiled. “How sweet, I might consider reading it, but let me see that font now.” 

Edward still held the book back but turned to the first page. Jacob shook his head, still smiling. To think that a vampire was that very obsessed with spoilers. He confirmed to his satisfaction what the font looked like, and then leaned back to rest his back against the wall, still looking at Edward with a casual smile. “So you like books?” 

“I believed we had established that reading was the only thing I could do to pass time back then. That and…” He stopped himself, and busied his hands by putting the book aside. “Nevermind. It’s not important.” 

_Oho?_

“I do most certainly not smell guilty.” 

_Ohohoho._

“I do not…” Edward was very much avoiding to look at him now, and the scent of ashamed hamster spoke very interestingly to what else he had done to pass time. Jacob grinned, he was amused to confirm that sex-drive didn’t disappear with age. The hamster huffed, clearly pretending that he couldn’t read Jacob’s mind. 

Then, without a warning, Edward’s head snapped to the side, and he looked straight at the door with such intensity in his eyes that Jacob thought he could almost taste the change of air in the cabin. It was sudden, and strange, the emotions in the vampire’s eyes were completely different compared to what they had just been. A knock came from the door, and the werewolf got up to check it with a heavy feeling in his chest. Whoever was outside made the vampire behind him very uncomfortable, in an instant. 

Jacob felt relief wash over him when he opened the door to realize that their visitor was one of Bella’s friends, that jealous guy named Mike. After the initial relief, he realized that the fact that Mike was there, alone, was rather suspicious. The teenager outside the door looked equally surprised to see him, and managed to collect himself slightly slower than Jacob did. 

“Hey.” Jacob said.

“H-uh, sup…” Mike began, trying to lean to the side enough to be able to see inside the cabin. Jacob found it rather rude, but he was big enough to block the view of the cabin for the other. “I didn’t know you were in this cabin, is Cullen there?” 

“Yeah, he is.” Mike smelled confrontational, something which made it very hard for Jacob not to not to scrunch his nose. “Why?” 

“Is Bella here?” 

Edward stood up from his bed, and came over towards them. “No she isn’t, why?” He didn’t sound confrontational, but Jacob could smell that the teenager found the vampire’s words to be mocking nonetheless. 

“Well, she was supposed to meet and talk to you, did you ditch her again?” Mike responded sharply. 

“She said that? She hasn’t been here.” Edward was beginning to smell really bad with worry and discomfort. 

“She went here before dinner, and she never came to get her food. What the heck did you do this time?” The teenager looked about to grab the vampire by the collar, and Jacob decided he was having no more of this. 

“Are you saying that Bella is missing?” Jacob asked as he stepped in front of Mike, using his bigger body as a reason for the teenager to think twice before he made another move. 

“Yeah, she didn’t come back, so I went to check if he’s done something else to make her upset.” 

“Bella hasn’t talked to Edward at all during this trip.” Jacob couldn’t hold back the growl now, staring down at the confrontational teenager with an angry glare. “She hasn’t been here.”

“How do you know? You were at dinner.” The little shit was brave, despite being scared of him. It was very clear that Mike was very intent on blaming Edward for any misfortune related to Bella; it was very uncomfortable to know, after getting to know the vampire’s side of the story. People really were that quick to push weight onto others, without caring whether it was justified, or if it would hurt that person. 

Jacob would have been able to smell if Bella had been there, but that logic didn’t exactly work as proof for somebody who wasn’t aware that he was a werewolf. “Well then, Ed, was she here?” He turned to look at the vampire, who seemed to have lost whatever color he ever had in his face. He smelled sick with worry, and his eyes were mostly focusing in the far distance, as if he was unable to see what was in front of him due to his distress. “Ed?” He repeated. 

“N-no.” Both teenagers were surprised to hear his voice shake, said voice was hardly more than a whisper. 

“See, she isn’t here, so instead of blaming him, why don’t you run to the teachers instead of wasting precious time here? I will follow in a bit.” Jacob turned to the vampire. 

“But-” 

“Go.” The word was an order, growled through his teeth. Mike scurried off. 

Jacob caught Edward as he tried to push past him, most probably to run out in the woods to look for her. “Hey, hey… Wait. What are you doing?” He kept his grip on the vampire’s shoulders, carefully making sure not to push him too hard. 

“She’s going to jump!” The response was quick and panicky, he could smell the fear and worry coming from the other as he wriggled in his arms. 

“Jump? Calm down, deep breaths, what is actually happening?” Jacob kept his grip on the other’s shoulders. “What do you mean she will jump?”

“Alice, she…” The vampire stopped, took a deep breath, and tried again. “Alice, she sees visions of the future. She saw Bella jump from a cliff, into water. I came along on this trip to try and keep an eye on her, make sure she didn’t try anything like that. And now… she is gone from here. We’re not too far away from the sea, she must have gone there to jump… It’s all my fault, I should never have-” 

“Hey, no.” Jacob tightened his grip on the other, trying to push back his own worries to help calm the other down. Part of him didn’t want to believe that Bella would do something so utterly dangerous for the attention of a guy she had dated for less than a year; it wouldn’t be acceptable if she so had been married to him a lifetime, but it was even more jarring like this. Yet she had tried to die for Edward just the other year, and she had shown to be unreliable and desperate. Jacob didn’t want to believe that Bella would jump from a cliff, but he couldn’t just wave away the vampire’s words, based on actually having started to trust the not-so-much-teenager. “You are not going out there after her, that will validate all of her current behaviors. You’re not responsible for what she does with her life, and by going there now, she will have succeeded with her madness.” 

“But if only I hadn’t…” Edward began. 

“Only what? You couldn’t have know that she would become like this when you met and started dating. Being together with somebody based on them forcing you to be is madness, in fact abuse, and not something anyone should have to go through. You shouldn’t have to suffer just because she is acting all crazy!” It may not have been the smoothest way to say it, and he didn’t like talking about an unstable person in such manners, but there was no time, and he really wasn’t ready for handling this all of a sudden. He’d have to do his best. 

Jacob looked into Edward’s eyes, and he could see the beginning of tears in them. He was reminded of a hamster yet again, small, weak, helpless. Apparently, vampires could cry, he let that thought disappear into the back of his mind, the discovery wasn’t important right then. The werewolf found himself touching the other’s face, carefully allowing his hand to rest upon the other’s cheek. The vampire made a noise which sounded vaguely like a hiccup. “I’m… I…” 

“It’s alright. Let’s go talk to the teachers, they should be the ones to take care of this, not us. If it is either of us, especially you, it will worsen everything, both for us, and her.” He let his hand fall from the other’s face, and grabbed Edward’s hand, finding it cold, but not too cold to touch. “Come on, old hamster.” He grinned, trying to give the other a reassuring smile. 

Jacob stopped by the outskirts of the woods, and sniffed the air. It took him a little bit, but he managed to locate Bella’s scent, and tell roughly in what direction she had left in. Edward looked like he was about to head that way, but the werewolf kept his hand in his, and pulled him away from the forest in favor of heading towards the teachers' cabin. They reached it and were met by the teachers, the cabin owner, and Mike. The teenager seemed to be finishing telling them about Bella’s disappearance. By his side, Edward pulled his hand back to himself. Jacob found that he rather quickly missed the contact. 

The werewolf stopped to talk to the teachers and the cabin owner, who was an older lady, who seemed to prefer to stay out in the cabin, rather than at home. She was also there in cases like these, where she knew the forest and could organize a much more effective search operation. Jacob told them that Bella had been strange for a few days now, and had talked to him about a cliff not too far away from their current location. The cabin woman confirmed that there were cliffs which lead straight down into the ocean, and which matched the (imaginary) cliffs which Bella had (not) talked about. The teachers hurriedly left in the direction Jacob pointed out, one of them took a car, as to get to the cliff-side before everyone else. Only one stayed behind to keep watch over the rest of the students. Jacob, Edward and Mike were told to return to their cabins, preferably not speaking about Bella’s disappearance to other students as to not frighten or upset them. 

As soon as they were out of view from the teachers and from Mike, Jacob grabbed Edward’s hand again. He could feel the other tremble as he held onto him, leading him back to the cabin. Well inside again, they returned to Edward’s bed, and sat down upon it. The hamster still smelled of worry, anxiety and fear. It made him feel ill as well, he would have to distract the other with something, or they would just worry each other in a circle. He was already sick with worry, and upset with Bella for hurting the people who care about her like this, if she really had left for the cliff-side for that very reason. He needed a distraction as well. 

“So…” Jacob began.

“You’re going to try to distract us both.” The hamster confirmed. 

“Yeah.” 

“That… doesn’t sound like an awful idea…” With a sigh, the vampire agreed to try and keep his mind on less worrying matters. 

“Do you ever watch movies or play games?” 

“Generally not, no.”

“Do you have any gaming systems?” 

“No.”

 _Well this is going great._ “What about movies?” 

“I haven’t been to the cinema in ages. Literally.” 

Jacob frowned, and leaned his head to the side like a confused dog. “You… do know that one can watch movies at home too?” 

Edward stared at him, so Jacob did his best to envision putting on a DVD. The vampire shook his head, slowly. “I thought one could only watch TV from home. Those… TV programs.” 

“Movies are slightly shorter TV programs after all. Or the other way around, I guess.” Jacob informed him, helpfully. 

“Well, I don’t watch the TV so I’m afraid I can’t tell you anything interesting about that.” There was a slightly apologetic tone in the vampire’s voice. 

“Then I guess I’m going to have to ask about books. Figured it was a little too easy, but here we go, what books do you like?” He leaned back in the bed, looking at the other’s face as Edward thought, while trying to think about how much cuter the slightly ruffled hair made the hamster look. 

“...I started reading a lot of what is now considered classic literature back when I was newly turned. I suppose I find it amusing to read about supernatural creatures and how humans like to imagine them.” He smiled slightly. “I remember asking Carlisle all the time what was real and not about them, and if they even existed at all.” 

“So mostly horror and supernatural stuff?” Jacob smiled, amused. 

“I… I suppose you could say that.” 

“ _Dracula_?”

Edward groaned. “Yes. Yes I have read _Dracula_.” 

“Okay, but I have to know, is anything of it true?” The werewolf couldn’t help himself but to lean in, an interested grin playing on his lips. 

Edward sighed. “Not… much.”

“Details man, details.” 

“Uhn…” That might have been the funniest noise Jacob had ever heard coming from another person. “Drinking blood is true, but that’s about it.” A strange expression passed over Edward’s face. “I was a little excited about the idea of turning into a bat. But that isn’t true either.” 

“Doesn’t Dracula transform into a wolf and mist too? Or something like that.” 

Edward looked like he had bit into a lemon. “He does.” 

“But what about that time-”

“Enough about Dracula.” Was he pouting? That looked damned near a pout to the werewolf. “I’m not pouting. There are other novels with vampires but Dracula. I’d much rather talk about them.” 

“Alright, tell me about those then.” Jacob leaned back, making himself comfortable on the bed.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The vampire sounded a little uncertain when he spoke up. “You can’t have forgotten that I can read your mind?”
> 
> “Do you have any proof that you can?” Jacob’s response was quick. “Besides, thought crimes aren’t crimes.” He winked, making the vampire go back to his sort of awkward, but rather relaxed smile. 
> 
> “So you are thinking about it?” Edward moved a little closer. 
> 
> “Thinking about what?” The werewolf moved closer as well. 
> 
> “Kissing me?” Still a little closer. 
> 
> “Why would I think about kissing you?” Jacob breathed over his lips, he was pretty sure that vampire’s didn’t breathe, and now he had it confirmed. 

Edward took a deep breath. Does he even need to breathe, Jacob wondered. “So the arguably first creation or usage of the word vampire comes from John Polidori’s short work _The Vampyre_ , which has been revealed to be a work of fiction written about a man known as Lord Byron. Many have brought to attention that the story seems to be written by an angry lover trying to get back on the man who betrayed his love. It dates back to 1819, around the same time where Mary Shelley wrote _Frankenstein_. I believe it was something about a group of friends meeting up and deciding to write a horror novel each, and both the author and his supposed lover were in the group, as well as Mary Shelley. Carlisle is older than that, so vampires have been around for much longer than the 19th century. While _The Vampyre_ has been credited together with _Dracula_ to be more or less the information guide to vampires upon which the modern reader bases their information on, I find that works such as _Carmilla_ and _The Vampire Chronicles_ are far more worthy of one’s time than the aforementioned ones.”

“Ed?” 

“Yes… ah, well, you are right. That might be a little too much information…” He stopped to think, and then continued. “I liked _The Vampire Chronicles_. It was written by a woman by the name of Anne Rice. The first book is called _Interview with the Vampire_ and… What do you mean you’ve seen the movie?”

Jacob blinked when he was addressed. “Well, I mean that there is a movie. We could watch it sometime if you’d like?” He tried to imagine the vampire household trying to handle a DVD player, and failed to imagine it. “Either way, I don’t remember anything from it, except the part with the horse’s head in the bed.”

“...There is no such part, Jacob.” 

“There isn’t? What movie was that then? Oh well, keep on talking.” 

“...It’s about a man who is made into a vampire around the 18th century, so he’s a lot older than me. That’s the colonial times, if you don’t know.” He stopped himself. “Yes, you are right, of course you know that, based on your origins.” Edward didn’t dwell on that. “The story follows his life and how he gets depressed as he continues to live without meaning and without anyone to understand him. I’m paraphrasing, but it’s something that truly stuck with me over the years. It felt so real to me, because I was living a similar life. In her second novel, _The Vampire Lestat_ , it is revealed that Lestat, who is, of course, a vampire, has the ability to read minds. He is very different from me but, in a way, I suppose it was the first time I ever felt… represented.” He seemed almost shy as he spoke the words, looking away to distances which Jacob couldn’t see. 

Jacob, in turn, had moved over to listen to Edward while lying on his pillow, which Edward wasn’t using. His nose was filled with the scent of the vampire, and the werewolf found that he was beginning to enjoy the scent. Stockholm syndrome popped up in his mind but he shrugged the amusing connections to the syndrome away, Beauty and the Beast, and all that. He was fairly sure that he was supposed to be the beast, in that reference. Besides, Stockholm syndrome would have required their interaction to be negative in the first place, which it hadn’t been. This was only comfortable. Edward had a nice voice. 

“Vampire fiction has changed a lot over the years, they used to be inherently sexual, exploring sexualities other than heterosexuality. As can be seen in _The Vampyre_ , due to the suspected homosexual suggestions behind its creation, the relationship between two women in _Carmilla_ , and _The Vampire Chronicles_ ’s, well, everything. The only work which focuses mainly on heterosexual romance and attraction, is _Dracula_ , and even then, Dracula drinks from a man as well, and that does of course have sexual implications.”

“Mmm. Interesting.” Jacob said, trying very hard to not think about the vampire next to him as a possible intercourse partner. Or vampires in a sexual manner, for the matter.

“Monsters and horror icons were often used to represent homosexuality back in the day, where the sexualities other than hetero were seen as wrong and frightening, thus adding to the otherness of the monsters,” the absolutely-not-fuckable-vampire continued. “Curiously enough, as vampires shifted from horror icons, to more common mainstream creatures, they began becoming more heterosexually focused. They are very commonly used as sexual fantasies in teenage romance, mainly directed towards women. It seems that people like to imagine themselves as having the gunst of an ancient creature who desires both to eat them and have sexual contact with them.” Something akin to that ancient sadness passed over the vampire’s face. “The thrill of danger, but the safety of love. Like… Mh.” 

“...Like Bella.” Jacob finished. “You sure know a lot about vampires,” he quickly changed topics. “It’s almost like you are one.” 

Edward smiled again, this time, Jacob thought he could see some happiness reflected in his eyes, and not only on his lips. “Indeed so. Lucky for me that you know better, seeing as I am a hamster, in actuality.” 

Jacob laughed so hard that he was uncertain if he would ever be able to stop. 

“Well…” Jacob did manage to collect himself once more, allowing himself to breathe properly a few times before he continued speaking. “You clearly know a lot about human made up vampire lore, what else is made up by humans?” 

“You mean things like crosses and garlic to ward vampires off?” 

The werewolf nodded, reaching out his arm to rest over Edward’s legs. The older not-really-a-teenager didn’t move an inch. It seemed the semi-hug was accepted. Nice. 

“They have rather varied origin, as I’m sure you’d expect. I have asked Carlisle about these things, and he told me that most of the ways to ward off vampires are connected to superstition, and later, the church.” 

“The church?” Jacob blinked up at the other. 

“The Christian church, to be more exact,” The hamster responded and nodded. “When it was beginning to take a hold of Europe, they needed a way to make the superstitious peasants believe in them, instead of their older beliefs. What better way to make people believe in your god than God having the ability to protect you from what you have always feared?” He smiled, but without happiness. “Most of the origins of the beliefs have been lost to memory, but I’ve read that a lot of authors change the lore pretty much however they want it, based on what they feel like. Some add more to it, some remove. It would be hard to find a work which keeps all the established ideas about how vampires work.” Edward smiled down at him. “Apparently, some people get very mad when you add new lore.” 

“Mhm. Did Carlisle say all that?” Jacob asked, burying his nose against the other’s back while stifling a yawn. 

“Not all of it. Can I ask you something back?” 

“Sure.” 

“Is silver deadly to werewolves?” 

“Nah, not really. I’m assuming that getting hit by a bullet will be deadly to most things. If it’s silver or not doesn’t really matter.” 

Edward nodded. “That is what I was assuming.”

“Have you read about werewolves too?” 

“Not… in the same detail.” He sank together ever so slightly. “I, uh… I used to think werewolves weren’t real. I never met or saw any before we moved to Forks.” 

“Wow, thanks a lot.” Jacob jabbed the other in the side, using the movement as an excuse to catch the hamster around his waist, while also pulling him down a little. 

The other didn’t resist, and allowed himself to be pulled down. He looked up at Jacob, this time in a way which almost made him look shy. “Jacob.”

“Ed.” Jacob interrupted him before he could continue.

“That isn’t really my name.”

“Ed is part of your name.” 

“I… suppose.” The hamster stopped, and then spoke again. “...Jeb.” 

“Pfft!” The werewolf began laughing, leaning in to cuddle the other while at it. 

“J-jak..?” Edward tried again.

“Jake.”

He was certain that Edward was pouting now. “That isn’t exactly part of your name.”

“Neither is fucking Jeb.” 

“Ugh!” 

“See, my name is pronounced Jake-ob, not Jack-ob.” 

“I… see your point. Either way, back to what I was saying. You seem rather unable to stop thinking about kissing me. Was me speaking of sexuality too… suggestive for you?” The vampire rolled around in his arms, facing Jacob with his unblinking eyes. He didn’t smell angry, or upset, but he did smell a little amused. The werewolf concluded that he was being teased. 

“I don’t know why you think I’m thinking of such a thing.” He responded, attempting to appear as the very image of innocence. 

The vampire sounded a little uncertain when he spoke up. “You can’t have forgotten that I can read your mind?”

“Do you have any proof that you can?” Jacob’s response was quick. “Besides, thought crimes aren’t crimes.” He winked, making the vampire go back to his sort of awkward, but rather relaxed smile. 

“So you are thinking about it?” Edward moved a little closer. 

“Thinking about what?” The werewolf moved closer as well. 

“Kissing me?” Still a little closer. 

“Why would I think about kissing you?” Jacob breathed over his lips, he had been pretty sure that vampire’s didn’t breathe, and now he had it confirmed. 

“Jacob?” 

“Mm?” 

They looked into one another’s eyes, Jacob into Edward’s unblinking ones, and Edward into Jacob’s brown. 

“I’m thinking about kissing you,” Edward concluded at last, his cold hand reached up, carefully placing itself upon the werewolf’s chest. He could smell that the hamster was nervous. Jacob was too, but tried not to be. 

“I still deny thinking about kissing you.” He grinned back. 

“So you are...Ah…” Edward stopped when he realized that he had been tricked. The werewolf was amused to know that the trickery worked in the first place. The hamster sighed, despite not needing to breathe. “Jacob. J-jake?” 

“Yes, Ed?” Almost touching now, barely an inch separating them. 

“Kiss me.” Edward’s voice was but a shaky breath. 

So they kissed. Jacob didn’t need to be encouraged more than once. 

They kissed, the world around them wasn’t still, but it certainly didn’t seem to matter. Their lips touched and moved, their tongues exploring one another, Jacob’s breaths mixing with the sound of their lips’ movements. He didn’t feel frightened in the least, or feared to be bitten by the corpse. Jacob believed himself to be able to taste blood from Edward’s tongue, but it could be imaginary.

Jacob wasn’t sure if he was a good kisser or not, but after realizing that the vampire seemed to be about as skilled as he was, he concluded that Edward either sucked for his age, or he himself was actually pretty decent. The former seemed to be the more reasonable conclusion. 

Still, they kissed, and all Jacob could think of was the feeling of those cold, hesitant, gentle lips, as he fell asleep holding the vampire in his arms. The last thing he was aware of before he fell asleep was Edward asking if he had fallen asleep, then a shuffle as the vampire reached for his book, and began reading to make the the night pass quicker.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “I think I’d be strange around a vampire who is trying to date my daughter too, had I been him.” Jacob began walking towards the dining cabin, to his surprise, Edward followed. 
> 
> “Well, I suppose that is true, but he doesn’t know that about me. I assumed it was simply the protective instincts of a father.” Edward spoke, falling into steps with the werewolf. 
> 
> “What makes you think he doesn’t know?” 

When Jacob woke up the next morning, he was still holding on to Edward, as if he was trying to make sure that the hamster wasn’t able to escape from the cabin without him knowing. Edward sat up, and that seemed to be what had woken the werewolf up. 

“Good morning.” 

“Mornin.” Jacob pressed his face against the other’s stomach, half trying to smell his skin, half trying to hide from the light in the room. It wasn’t sunlight, but the day was always lighter than the night, Edward’s shirt was almost good enough as a darkness replacement. “Hovvong have uuh bean uph?” _How long have you been up?_

The vampire chuckled, and his stomach moved accordingly when he laughed. “Maybe an hour, maybe more.” Jacob felt his head being stroked, earning Edward a noise of happiness from his cuddly associate. “Do werewolves always get attached this easily?” 

“Ohly wheb thearh scrahhes invoved.” _Only when there are scratched involved._

“I should think this is my first time scratching you. Now please come out from there, you can’t breathe properly.” 

Jacob surrendered to reality and rolled over to lay on the other’s thigh instead. He blinked at the day, and rubbed his eyes. “Ugh… I fell asleep in my fucking jeans.” 

“Don’t curse, it’s indecent.” 

Jacob rolled over on his back, looking at the other’s face with a big grin. “Yes yes, I’m a werewolf, not a swearwolf.” 

Edward looked taken aback and confused for a moment.

“I… Oh, a movie… It’s about… vampires?” He stumbled through reading his mind, as Jacob tried to focus on giving him information of said movie. Jacob was satisfied to know that it was a very good tactic to trade information without having to explain himself. “What did you say it was called?” 

“What we do in the shadows.” 

“...Yes?” Edward blinked down at him. 

“No, that is the name of the movie: What We Do in the Shadows.”

“...What do they do in the shadows?” The hamster asked him, looking down in an angle which gave him a bad case of double chin. Good to know that even Edward Cullen wasn’t perfect from every angle. Edward frowned: “you really think I look perfect? I believe myself to have a lot of flaws.” 

“Stop spying on my attractions.” Jacob grinned, as he reached out to poke the other’s nose. “They do a lot of things, but if you want to know, you’ll have to watch the movie with me.” 

“I believe that is our second planned movie, uh, night?” 

“Are you complaining?” 

“No.” Edward was smiling again, this time, it reached his eyes. “I’m not complaining.” 

Jacob rolled off the bed, making sure to roll over the other’s legs just to mess with him, before he waddled off to look for new clothes in his bag. _Pants, pants._ His tired mind honed in on the word, and it became his focus as he searched. Behind him, Edward got up and then sat down again, when he turned, he found that the vampire was sitting with a blood bag in his hands, drinking from it with a straw, like one would a capri-sun. 

Jacob looked at the bag. “Does that stay fresh in your bag? Wait, hold on, is that human blood? That seems to be the much more pressing issue here.” He had given up on thinking things for the moment, and instead just said everything he thought out loud. 

“It’s not human, it’s…” Edward stared at the bag, and then shrugged, unable to figure out what animal it came from. Jacob noticed that his eyes had become golden instead of their usual color. He wondered if it had to do with the blood. “And I have a small cooling bag in my other bag, I have been keeping it charged when we’ve been busy with lessons.” 

Something hit the werewolf as the other said that, and he asked with a somewhat uncomfortable feeling in his mouth. “Did you want to bite me during the night?” 

Edward stopped sucking on the straw and shook his head. “A little, maybe, but not in any way which was a problem for either of us. Let’s see… do you like cheese? Every human seems to like cheese.”

“Sure, I like cheese. Some cheese at least.” 

“When you walk past a stand of cheese, and smell it, do you usually lose control and barge past the disk to stuff your face full?” 

“...No, of course not.”

“It’s somewhat similar. When you are a newborn, the smell can drive you insane, and I admit that I have a hard time resisting when somebody is openly bleeding in front of me. Yet I’ve lived around humans for most of my life, usually, I can remove myself from the scene as to not cause one.” He sucked on the straw once more, looking down at the bag in a way which made him cross-eyed. “This blood is… the cheapest, most mass produced cheese you can imagine. The desire for real cheese, one which tastes rich and full, objectively tasting better than the cheap one, is hard to resist. I can feel my body being less of what it could be, due to this not being the blood I should be drinking.” 

“You used to like cheese back before you turned, I take it?” 

“Yes. Yes I did.” The hamster sighed, looking down at his meal. 

“I sort of get what you mean though, it wasn’t a bad explanation.” _Hah, pants. Hell yeah._ Jacob began pulling them on, not caring that the vampire was looking. It wasn’t like the vampire hadn’t already seen him naked. “Either way, why are you suddenly drinking blood in front of me? I wasn’t aware that a kiss made us practically married.” 

He watched as Edward almost spit his blood out. “I...I… Excuse me! Back in my time, one did not simply… A kiss was worth a lot more than what it is today, but that does not mean it meant marriage.” 

Jacob grinned as he pulled off his shirt and changed to a clean one. The hamster sighed and licked some stray blood from his lips. “So why are you drinking?”

Edward glanced down at his breakfast, and then continued. “I usually drink during the night, but as I was mostly trapped by a werewolf this night, I wasn’t able to.” He sighed, avoiding Jacob’s eyes. “And I think we should go visit Bella before you go to breakfast. I’m worried that she might be hurt, and bleeding. I do not want to risk attacking her based on an empty stomach. I just… want to know what happened.” 

Jacob nodded, but reluctantly so. “Ugh… I’m not sure I like it, but I guess some sort of confirmation of what happens might be needed. I guess we’ll go see her, and we’ll make sure that she knows she has to stop, that she is hurting you, and that you aren’t going to come after her. As soon as you’ve finished that, uh, breakfast, that is.” 

Edward did finish his blood, and the two of them walked over to the teachers' cabin. Jacob had argued that it made more sense to make sure that they had found her before they headed over to the nurse’s cabin. Jacob was still reluctant about letting the two meet, so he asked that Edward stayed slightly to the side, and didn’t do anything stupid. After haven been given the hamster’s word, he went to talk with the teachers. 

He was met by a teacher he knew, greeted her, and asked information about Bella, as he did, he had a terribly uncomfortable realization that the girl might actually be dead. It could have been too late, and she could have had time to jump to her death. With all those fears clustering in his throat, he waited for an answer. 

“Luckily enough, we managed to catch up to Ms. Swan before she could reach the cliff. She… began running towards it as we caught up to her and… Oh, but I truly shouldn’t be telling you this…” It was very clear to Jacob that the teacher was shaken, such details should not be shared with a student. It was irresponsible and unprofessional. Nonetheless, she had already told him, and the werewolf felt the uncomfortable feeling in his gut ease, but not disappear. 

“Would you at least tell me if she was harmed?” Jacob continued, carefully trying to steer the shaken, small woman away from the uncomfortable topic. 

“It seemed that she was unharmed other than a few small cuts and bruises from traveling in the forest alone in the dark, like she did. Poor, poor girl, whatever was she thinking?” As she spoke, she hugged herself and wagged back and forth. 

Right then, Jacob rather bitterly realized just how much harm such an act did to everyone who became unlucky enough to be involved in it. Sure, Bella was acting on her own, jeopardizing a life which was hers, but suicide didn’t just affect the person who had been lost. He knew that he had no right to be mad at her, because she was sick and needed help, but it was hard to not feel upset over the consequences her actions were causing. 

“Is she still here?” He tried to not let his voice be affected by his own bitterness. 

“Oh Heavens, no, the girl has been taken back to her home and father. A suicidal person should not be kept outside her home, she should be somewhere where she feels safe, and with somebody who can look after her.” That was probably too much information yet again, but Jacob very much agreed with her words. 

“That’s very good, Charlie Swan is a great man, he will take care of her.” He nodded and began to walk away when the teacher halted him. 

“Please keep this information hidden from the rest of the students, for her sake. Those who have asked have been told that she got sick and had to be taken home.” The woman nodded at her own words. “For her sake.” 

“For her sake.” The werewolf agreed, and walked back to Edward, who was waiting a little away. “Bella is back with Charlie, she’s unharmed, but they are worried about her.” 

The hamster nodded, looking and smelling more relieved than Jacob had ever seen him before. “That is good. Charlie Swan is a good man, even if he has always behaved a little strangely around me.”

“I think I’d be strange around a vampire who is trying to date my daughter too, had I been him.” Jacob began walking towards the dining cabin, to his surprise, Edward followed. 

“Well, I suppose that is true, but he doesn’t know that about me. I assumed it was simply the protective instincts of a father.” Edward spoke, falling into steps with the werewolf. 

“What makes you think he doesn’t know?” 

Edward stared at him, and Jacob gave in and simply thought about his dad and the man’s relationship with Charlie Swan. “Dad really likes him. He told Charlie about werewolves many years ago. When you got involved with Bella, he warned Charlie about the vampires in Forks. Dad believed you and her dating was a rather bad idea from the beginning. Oh, also, he did mention that you don’t drink human blood. Before that, Charlie had your family pegged as some manner of creepy cult.” Jacob tried not to think of what his dad would think about him having kissed the vampire in question.

“...Cult?” Edward slowly spoke the word, as if it tasted too strange in his mouth for him to properly vocalize it. 

“Yeah. Your dad is posing as 23 or something, and his kids are like, 5 years younger. You do know that that isn’t exactly normal?” 

Judging by Edward’s face, he hadn’t thought about it. “Carlisle is over 300 years old… he’s not… hm.” 

“Maybe he should start posing as older than 23, having all those doctorates at such a young age doesn’t make for a very believable story in the first place.” Jacob was so very amused by Edward’s face that he couldn’t help but push a little more, a smile playing on his face. 

“...I didn’t know your father was as involved with the community of Forks to have him warn a policeman about werewolves and vampires.” Edward changed topics. Jacob let him get away with it, but he did notice what the other was doing. 

“I don’t think you realize just how involved they are with one another.” He chuckled, turning towards the vampire with a big grin. “If Bella hadn’t moved to Forks, Charlie would probably be living with us by now. Him and dad have been dating for quite some time, and dad wanted to make sure that Charlie ran if he ever encountered a scene which might have vampires involved. It was only logical that he’d get to know.” Edward blinked. This time, it looked rather real. “Since dad can’t run anymore, he can’t join us during full moon, so he snuggles up in Charlie’s bed and refuses to move. If I ever get incapacitated, I would also like a partner whose bed and arms I could snuggle in for the whole night.” 

“That… does sound cute, but do werewolves not lose control during a full moon?” They had stopped walking now, staying out of sight and hearing range of the rest of the people in the camp. 

“I really shouldn’t be telling you these things, Sam will get mad at me.” Jacob tried very hard not to think of what it was like to be a werewolf during a full moon, and realized to his frustration that it was having the opposite effect. 

“...If there is something you don’t want to think about, trying not to think about it will have the opposite effect.” Edward spoke, noticing the werewolf’s plight. “Instead of fighting it and trying not to think of something, you should think of something else. It’s a common trick to combat anxiety as well, you need to find your ‘Red Balloon’ to replace the other thoughts. Something that makes you happy, something you can focus on and let it fill you. Some people think of their pets, some of their garden, some think of intercourse. Back when I met Charlie Swan the first time, he was thinking very intensely of a big, warm dog, which I now realize must have been to combat the anxieties about my nature.” He smiled, and shrugged. “How ironic that that made me unable to read his actual mind.”

“That dog he was thinking of might have been dad then.” Jacob couldn’t help but smile. Dang, he liked Charlie, he made his dad so happy, and he was a really nice guy to have around.

“That is what I assume.” 

“...Wait… Did you just help me combat your mind-reading skills?” Jacob snickered to himself, feeling appreciation heat his chest up with happiness. 

“Yes.” Edward smiled at him. 

“...You coming to breakfast with me and the guys™?” Jacob nodded towards the dining cabin. 

“...Why did you say ‘the guys, trademark’ out loud?” The vampire looked over his face, searching for a reason in his expression and in his mind. Jacob thought of running, the overwhelming joy in dashing through the woods, completely free and beyond strong. He noticed on Edward’s face that it was working. The werewolf could easily imagine the technique being a valuable asset for somebody who was dealing with a lot of anxiety and needed a distraction from those thoughts. “...Tell me.” Heh, the hamster almost sounded pouty. It was a little too amusing. 

“It’s really just a joke. We’ve named our messenger group chat that.” Jacob headed for the cabin, and to his great excitement, he noticed that Edward followed him inside. On the way in, he explained what Facebook and Messenger was.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Note: We decided to set the story a few years later than the book's time of 2004.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Jacob?” 
> 
> “Yeah?” He looked down at the vampire who was cuddling his hand in that cute animal like way which Jacob apparently liked. A lot. 
> 
> “We’re not dating, right?” 
> 
> “Not really, no?” He shrugged. 
> 
> “We don’t know each other well enough to be dating, right? I think I might think otherwise since I know your mind, but you don’t know me very well…”The vampire trailed off. “What I mean to say is, maybe we shouldn’t think of dating this early, there is still the thing with Bella, and as I said, I don’t-” 
> 
> “Edward.” Jacob chuckled. “Do you want to date me?” 

Carl the Llama: so how bout that trip? did anyone get shit of what was going on with the fucking fungi? 

Rick not Dick: They had like, three lectures talking about it. How come you haven’t gotten it by now? 

Carl the Llama: fungi are evil, man, how can i listen to their propaganda? 

Tylerschmyler: Hes got a point 

Rick not Dick: He’s just trying to excuse not pulling the weight of the group project. Ty, you’re part of the problem

Tylerschmyler: At least Im not part of the fungi army 

Carl the Llama: ey

Tylerschmyler: Ey

-Jake the Dog added Edward Cullen to The Guys™-

Jake the Dog: I had to help him make a messenger. He wasn’t on FB 

Edward Cullen: Hello. 

Carl the Llama: sup eddie

Edward Cullen: Sup, @Carl the Llama. 

Rick not Dick: Edward, do you wanna be my partner for the group project? I’m divorcing Carl

Carl the Llama: nooooo my wife

Edward Cullen: I didn’t know you were married, @Carl the Llama and @Rick not Dick. You shouldn’t divorce over something so small as a group project. 

Jack the Dog: They’re joking, Ed 

Edward Cullen: Oh. Haha. It was rather funny @Jake the dog.

Tylerschmyler: You dont have to tag people when you write to them, Edward.

Edward Cullen: How do I do that @Tylerschmyler?

Tylerschmyler: Nvm, you do you. 

Rick not Dick: Either way, I’m still divorcing Carl (no, not for real) anyone wanna team up with me? 

Carl the Llama: betrayal most foul 

Rick not Dick: I wouldn’t have to be unfaithful if you only worked harder for me

Carl the Llama: i gave you my best years what more do you demand of me

Rick not Dick: An accurate fungi report! 

Carl the Llama: accuracy is a lie by the government 

Rick not Dick: That’s it, I’m coming over to your house right now and we’re writing this report the best we can. We’re at least getting a B!

Carl the Llama: bring snacks babe

Tylerschmyler: Hes the snack

Rick not Dick: I’m bringing some cookies then

Edward looked up at Jacob from over his computer, staring at him with his unblinking eyes. The two of them had stayed after school to set up a Facebook account for Edward. It was the day after the field trip had ended, and the werewolf and vampire had realized that the other wasn’t entirely safe in their respective homes, so Jacob had decided that he had to get Edward some manner of chat program so that they could at least talk. He had gotten the hamster’s number, but Jacob wasn’t very big on talking, he much preferred texting. Yet with Edward’s Dyslexia, it was a little more complicated. Thus, Jacob had made him bring his personal computer, and had changed the entire font setting to Comic Sans, as Open Dyslexia wasn’t a standard choice. Edward had stated that the font was already easier to read, and he felt more secure in writing already, so Jacob didn’t bother to look for ways to download and install Open Dyslexia as the standard font. The first thing they had done was adding one another on Messenger, and then added Edward to the group conversation. Edward was still staring at him. 

“Yes?” Jacob asked, trying not to look too amused. 

“Are they… always like this?” the hamster finally asked. 

“Pretty much.” 

“Oh. Well, at least the chat is rather easy to read now, with this font.” Edward looked down at the conversation again. “...I feel like I’m watching cats fight in a small, locked space.” 

“I can see why you’d think that.” Jacob couldn’t hold back his laughter at that point, shaking his head over his friends. 

Edward’s computer beeped, and with Jacob’s help, the hamster accepted the friend requests from the guys™. They noticed that a lot of people were already trying to add him, but they decided that it was probably just better to leave them be and not accept. As Edward looked at the screen, they both saw a familiar name appear in the friend request list: Bella Swan. Jacob felt his heart sink slightly in his chest as they both stared at her profile picture. Edward’s mouse pointer hovered over the ‘accept’ button. 

“I really don’t think that’s a good idea.” Jacob spoke with more force than he had intended to. 

“...Hm.” Edward was still staring at her face in her profile picture. “I don’t know, maybe we should talk? Maybe avoiding her is making this all worse?”

“It’s still not your fault. You don’t have responsibility for what she is doing with her life, and talking to her might just encourage her to push you about and try to force you into more things. It really seems to have hit the end of the road, if she does this all for your attention, it’s just not alright. She isn’t alright. She needs help to find her way back from elsewhere.” Jacob gently pushed Edward’s hand to the side, just so that he wouldn’t accidentally press the accept button. 

“...I don’t know, maybe we should talk…” The other more or less mumbled. 

“Do you want to talk to her?” Jacob didn’t need to look at the other’s face to know what he was feeling, he could smell the reluctance and discomfort. 

“...No. I really… don’t have anything to say.” The vampire confessed, slowly shaking his head. “I have a curious feeling that I should… apologize.” 

“Apologize? For what?” 

“When she was out in the woods, trying to reach that cliff, I was in a cabin, being held by you, and feeling rather… comfortable, happy… Emotions like that. I don’t feel like… I have the right to be comfortable when she is feeling so bad.” 

Jacob reached out and grabbed the other’s shoulder, turning the chair so that Edward would be facing him. The vampire avoided looking him in the eyes. “Edward.” He began, firmly but gently. “You always have a right to be happy. If an ex of yours is making herself miserable, it is not your fault and it can never be your fault. Her acting like this, stopping you from moving on and making you feel guilty to pressure you back into a relationship, isn’t your fault or responsibility. If all that can happen from a talk is you being forced to do something you don’t want, then there is no point in talking at all.” 

Edward was looking at him now, and Jacob was hit with the realization that despite the vampire’s age, he was acting like any other abused teenager. He looked so lost, and so unhappy, and Jacob wanted to shake sense into him, and tell him he had the right to be happy. He moved his hand up to the vampire’s face and watched as the cold being cuddled up to it, closing his eyes with a deep sigh. It was cute. Jacob didn’t try to hide that he thought it was cute. He also didn’t hide that it made him immensely relieved to be able to be a comfort to the vampire. 

“...Am I really that cute…?” Edward mumbled, not opening his eyes.

“Are you trying to deny what I just told you?” Jacob moved to pinch his cheek instead. “Answer me, you hamster.” 

The hamster chuckled and leaned in to cuddle the hand which was offered to him. “I’m sorry, you are right. I shouldn’t write with her, I don’t want to. I only wanted to because I feel guilty, and I have nothing to feel guilty about.” 

“Now that’s better.” It felt very good that they managed to chase away the suffocating atmosphere so easily. That didn’t mean that the problems weren’t there or that Bella’s actions were easy to ignore, but it was important to Jacob that they could break free of it and not be dragged down by bad events. Just because Edward’s ex was miserable didn’t mean he had to be. 

“Jacob?” 

“Yeah?” He looked down at the vampire who was cuddling his hand in that cute animal like way which Jacob apparently liked. A lot. 

“We’re not dating, right?” 

“Not really, no?” He shrugged. 

“We don’t know each other well enough to be dating, right? I think I might think otherwise since I know your mind, but you don’t know me very well…”The vampire trailed off. “What I mean to say is, maybe we shouldn’t think of dating this early, there is still the thing with Bella, and as I said, I don’t-” 

“Edward.” Jacob chuckled. “Do you want to date me?” 

He swore that the vampire turned red in the face. “As I said, there are a myriad of reasons as to why we shouldn’t… Not to mention that it isn’t safe for you to visit my home, and it’s not allowed for me to be in your territory… And we’ve known each other for three days. I’m probably just… It seems foolish to think that dating would be possible for us as it is now.” 

“So the answer is yes.” 

“...It is… yes, yes. I mean, I do, yes. I...hnn… yes.” The hamster staggered out an answer. 

“I’m interested in dating you too.” Jacob was a little overwhelmed with how happily Edward looked up at him, the happiness which filled his eyes were unlike any expression the werewolf had ever seen on, well, anyone. It made his heart beat faster in his chest. “But you’re probably right in that we should get to know each other better. I’ll take a chat with Sam, and my dad, and you can meet me by the crossroads tomorrow for movie night? You shouldn’t drive about alone in werewolf territory, but it should be fine if you’re with me.” 

Edward blinked up at him, and then slowly began smiling. “Isn’t this a little bit like a Romeo and Juliet story then? A werewolf and a vampire, despite never reading anything like it, it feels clichéd…” He shook his head, but Jacob could smell that he was happy. 

“Except your dad is basically Arthur Weasley from the Harry Potter series. He’s been interested in interaction between our groups for a really long time. Everybody seem to know him as the crazy friendly vampire guy. He’s always been denied entrance into the territory, but I think he has tried for ages. The best he has managed is that treaty, and that took him a lot of effort. I bet he would be overjoyed with the idea of us dating.” Jacob chuckled and shook his head. “He’s so eager to be friends with the werewolves that he practically smells of submission. It’s kind of weird.” 

“I… never cared for the Harry Potter series. Is it a good read?” Jacob wasn’t sure if he was trying to avoid knowing about Carlisle’s behavior, or denying it happening at all, but he was pretty sure that the mind reader already knew about the old vampire’s affections for… everything. 

“If you like overpowered protagonists and a plot that was never thought out properly and has to be patched together with every new installment, sure. There is no denying that it had quite the impact on the world and fiction in general, but I don’t know if I’d call the books or movies all that worthy of being interacted with, at least not when you’re not a kid anymore.” He shrugged, removing his hand from the vampire’s cheek before he casually leaned over and clicked ‘deny’ on Bella’s friend request. “So what movie do you wanna start with? Interview with the Vampire?” 

Edward nodded as he reached out and closed his laptop, picking it up from the desk. “Then I suppose you should head back home and prepare for tomorrow.” He stood up. 

“Yeah, I probably should. Tomorrow is Friday, right? I haven’t gone crazy.” He added with a laugh. 

“No, tomorrow is Friday.” 

“Great, than most of tomorrow will be awkward waiting for the day to end and movie night to start.” 

“That seems to be it.” Edward confirmed. Damn, he really had a cute smile. 

“Well, we’ll see each other tomorrow.”

“Yes, as it is school, we will.” 

They looked at one another. Then they both leaned in to kiss the other on the cheek, which ended up with them colliding. Jacob laughed and Edward smiled, followed by them giving in and kissing one another on the lips. After their awkward kiss, which nobody saw, since they were alone in the study room, they began to walk towards the parking lot, thus discovering that they had said goodbye only to be heading the same way. Once again, Jacob laughed, and grabbed Edward’s hand. 

Later that day Jacob fell face first down into his bed, groaning loudly. What was he doing? What in the nine circles of Hell was he doing? Did Hell have nine circles or seven? He had no idea. Christians made no sense with their Hell, and neither did he, as a person. He had managed to act all cool and smooth around the hamster since the other had been so very nervous. Heh, it sure was easier to act supportive to somebody who needed it, rather than doing it for one’s own sake. Yet now there was nobody there to act tough for anymore, and Jacob was stuck with all the nervousness in the world. What was he supposed to do if Sam said no? At least his dad had picked a human to crush on! Why couldn’t he have been clever enough to start crushing on a nice, normal human? One who liked dogs, and had a wickedly good scratching technique, and who liked long walks in the forest. Edward probably liked long walks though… No, back to nervous again. Jacob combated the feeling by doing the only logical thing: groan into his pillow. Loudly. 

He came out from the pillow to breathe, and pulled it along with him to hug as he reached for his phone. He scrolled through the contacts, and opened the chat logs with Sam. He stared at the profile picture for a few seconds, before taking a deep breath and wrote to him. 

Jacob Black: Hey, I was wondering if I could bring a friend from school into the territory? 

Sam Uley: Hey. Sure you can. Is the new school fun? 

Jacob Black: Yeah, it’s nice. Made some new friends, they are nice. But there’s just something kind of special about this friend I wanna bring over

Sam Uley: Alright?

Jacob Black: He’s one of the Cullens. Not Carlisle, but Edward Cullen. I shared a cabin with him for three days, he’s not bad to be around 

Sam Uley: You want to bring a VAMPIRE into MY territory? 

Jacob Black: Yes. Would that be okay? I take full responsibility of making sure he doesn’t cause trouble. Besides, he’s more of a hamster than a vampire

Sam Uley: Fine. I guess you can bring him, but make sure he knows that if he as much as breathes out of line, he will be ripped limb from limb. I trust you, but I could never trust one of them. 

Jacob Black: I will. Thanks, Sam. I’ll treat you to lunch as thanks for letting me bring him 

Sam Uley: I’m still skeptical. 

Jacob Black: I know. Still, thanks. 

Sam Uley: I have to ask though… How the heck is a vampire like a hamster?


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Jacob?” Edward asked as he sat back down. “I don’t know anything about psychology. Do you really think I would make a good therapist?”
> 
> “Well, you’d have to study for it, like any other person who’d want to become a therapist.” He reached out and pulled the other into his arms, wanting the hamster to rest on his shoulder. “You’re already reading minds no matter what, might as well get paid for it.” He finished with a wink, and hit the start button on the remote. 

The day was about as awkward as they had both thought it would be. Jacob was excited but nervous, and Edward seemed to be more present than he usually was. During lunch, he even broke from the family table, and came to sit with the guys™ instead. Carl was rambling about forced fungi studies during lunch, and Richard was talking about the university he wanted to get into. Tyler made a valiant attempt of stacking his lunch into the leaning tower of potato, but the tower fell as another of the guys™, named Finn, sat down by the table and rattled it. 

Jacob looked over at Edward every now and then during the day, and found that he couldn’t stop thinking about kissing him. He knew that the other knew what he was thinking, and it was a little thrilling to be able to speak to him in his mind, knowing well that Edward would hear him. If there was a reason to not like the mind reading aspect, he sure hadn’t found it yet. 

The day ended and guys™ wanted to go downtown and eat at a fastfood place, to which Edward and Jacob declined the invitation. Jacob went to get his motorbike, and then had Edward follow him by car towards his pack’s territory. Everything went well, and they arrived by his home without any trouble. Jacob had hoped that nothing would happen, but he couldn’t help but feel relieved as they were able to step inside the house without incidents. 

Edward looked around in the house, it was sparsely decorated, and had a few paintings and decoration of Native American origin. It wasn’t like a cartoon, where everything in the house spoke of its owners and their culture, but enough that it was noticeable if one looked, and just there if one didn't. The house was a one floor building. It was clearly adapted for a person in a wheelchair. There were no thresholds at all, allowing for the wheelchair to move smoothly. Billy wasn’t at home, and Jacob explained that he had driven over to spend time with Charlie and Bella, since he didn’t want his lover to be alone at a time when so much was asked of him. Being a parent didn’t mean that one no longer needed support during hard times, and an inexperienced parent dealing with a suicidal teenager definitely called for support from a good friend. Billy Black had been Charlie’s friend long before they became lovers, and a friend he had remained. 

“It doesn’t smell that much of canine in here.” The vampire commented as he pulled his jacket off and hung it up. 

“Come now, nobody transforms into a giant dog in their own home.” Jacob chuckled, shaking his head. “Imagine all the vacuuming we’d have to do. It’s just common sense to not be a werewolf at home, especially not close to food or where food is cooked.” He lead Edward into the house, and to the movie room. It had used to be a guest room, but they had decided to install a projector instead, and put on a sheet to watch movies on. Jacob had earlier found out that they already had the movie in question, and had placed it next to the DVD player to keep track of it. 

“I like your house. It smells of you here.” He glanced behind him to find that Edward was still standing. 

“How romantic, you can sit down if you’d like. You don’t have to worry about dirtying anything.” Jacob started the player and pushed the movie inside, soon joining the vampire on the couch. 

“Won’t it be a problem if I make things smell of vampire in your home?” Edward looked up at him as he sat down. 

“Oh, you mean smelling of filthy vampire in our holy werewolf den?” Jacob grinned at him. 

“That was not the way I was planning on phrasing it but…” 

“Compared to all the scents in school, especially the boy’s locker room, you really don’t smell much. Besides, you’re acting as if something smelling like you once means it will never stop smelling of you. That’s really not how scents work. Just because the cough will smell of you now doesn’t mean it will smell like you in two days.” He made a show of rolling his eyes. “Honestly, how is that basic logic working out for you?” 

“Somebody is getting cocky…”

Edward shook his head, but he looked slightly relieved to not actually be a bother. 

Jacob couldn’t resist. “Do you like your boys cocky?” He leaned over the other, making use of his full height to seem more intimidating. He did so knowing full well that being intimidating wasn’t enough to make Edward uncomfortable, or intimidated, for that matter. 

The hamster froze under his gaze, looking up at the him with round, brown eyes. Jacob wondered if he went too far, or confused the other too much when Edward answered: “I never thought about what type of boys I like. Is that a thing I’m supposed to do?” 

“I guess Victorian people cannot think about such horrendous things as what type of boys they like. And by boys, I mean men.” 

“I’m not Victorian… That is way before my time. Carlisle is more from that era, not me.” Edward looked more than a little confused, and perhaps slightly offended over the suggestion. Jacob smiled at his reaction. It was very amusing to observe. 

“Then when did you die?” He asked, leaning his head to the side like a curious dog. It might be a rude question, but he wanted to know nonetheless. Maybe vampires were just picky about things like that. “I mean, when were you turned?”

The vampire looked over his face, and then gave in. “I was born at the beginning of the 20th century. A few years after the Old West, and around the time of the First World War. It was called the Great War back then, rather than the first, but I suppose that is a common history lesson at this point?” 

“Huh. What do you know, you’re above a hundred then.” Jacob nodded. 

“...That is what you are thinking of?” Once again, the vampire managed to pull off blinking in a realistic way. 

“Yeah, I guess. I suppose it’s hard for me to imagine what life was like back then, your age was a little easier to focus on.” Jacob leaned back in the couch, looking the hamster over. “It kind of makes it even more sad that you don’t have more interests and haven’t learnt more in a hundred years.” 

Edward’s lips became a thin line. “I do know some things, and I have read a lot of books.” 

“Yeah, but do you count that as really living?” 

The hamster looked like he had been slapped with a towel. “...I thought we were supposed to watch a movie.” 

“Have you ever considered being a therapist?” Jacob didn’t let him off so easily. His question seemed to have caught the other by surprise, as the hamster looked up at him with a very clearly confused expression. “I was just thinking, since you already know a lot about how people think and you can literally read their minds, why not put in the work and actually turn it around to help people?” 

“Is this what we should be talking about right now?” Edward actually sounded a little annoyed at this point, and Jacob wondered if he had pushed him too far. He was about to apologize when the other spoke up again. “You don’t have to say that you’re sorry. I… In, fact, I should apologize. Talking to you have made me realize that I… I have had a lot of time in my days, and a lot of things I could have done. I have had so much time that it became too much to handle. And instead of looking at it as anything but a curse, I locked myself away from the world. I go to the same school, take the same classes, I spend time with my family, who I’m always with anyway. I latched on to the idea of the mysterious in Bella, and neglected every sign of her real personality, based on wish thinking, until I pushed her to become like this. I don’t know how to…” Edward stopped to sigh. “I feel self conscious of my lack of life. I feel too old when I spend time with you and your friends, while also feeling far too young and inexperienced.” He was starting out in space again, looking at days past, looking outside the hamster cage and into the world of men. 

“It’s like the world left me behind,” Edward continued, “and I was too scared of it to try and return to it. In my efforts to stay away from emotion and hardship, I closed myself off, thinking I couldn’t be understood or… fit in. I hear people’s fear and anxieties every day in school, and I ignored them, thinking myself above their worries. Now, I find that I’ve been similar, making similar mistakes to the people I’ve rejected for their faults and insecurities. It doesn’t feel to me like such a person should be the one to try and help people with breaking out of those things, when I can hardly do it myself.” 

Jacob felt like he was looking at an older person again, Edward felt more like his age now, as he opened up about the things which bothered and scared him. He sort of understood his feelings about age, it was easy to feel old when meeting new people who one didn’t quite know, but it was also easy to feel like the runt of the litter, where one’s presence might not be much more than tolerated. Still, the worries were surprisingly human, and surprisingly easy to understand. “I’m not an expert on these things, but I am pretty familiar with outsidership. Not only being a werewolf, but growing up outside of the Forks community. It was always hard for me to go into town as a kid, because I felt stared at and out of place, compared to the society I grew up in.” He took a deep breath. “I was so scared starting at yours and Bella’s school. I was ready to be treated like some exotic native, and have people stare and ask me uncomfortable questions about my family and tribe and so on. When I actually did come, I do so along a bunch of other new kids, and we all had the same fears, but based on different reasons. Everyone was scared of not fitting in.” 

“...Are you trying to say that people aren’t as different as one might think?” The hamster looked at him, having pulled his legs up to hug them with a wayward look on his face. It was cute, but it also gave Jacob the realization that touching might not be welcomed, if the hamster felt defensive enough to build a wall around himself. “Because I’m not certain I agree with that.” 

“What I’m trying to say is that sometimes, understanding one another doesn’t mean that one has had the exact same experience. Looking at a wound, one can understand that it hurts. Looking at insecurities, one can understand that they exist without feeling them. Your ideas of finding something different, and therefore finding something new, might not be what you should be looking at. That exact behavior is what has made Bella latch onto you as much as she has, and what is keeping her from moving on.” He carefully reached out, letting Edward choose if he could touch him or not. To his great happiness, Edward held his hand back. “Basically, I’m trying to say that you have ended up blind to a lot of things outside your hamster cage, because you keep on trying to find new things in a place where you have no interaction or control. There are things in that cage which you can use, such as your mind reading powers, and bring with you to the outside, but your problems seem to start and end at the idea that you have no place anywhere but the cage.” 

“Jacob… I’m dangerous. I’m a danger to a lot of people, based on being a predator. You’re telling me that that’s alright and fine, do you hear how that doesn’t make sense?” The hamster shook his head, but the grip on his hand remained strong. 

“A lot of people on the outside are dangerous, and that’s sort of a creepy fact about life. Some are locked away, many aren’t. You are aware of yourself and your problems, you can control yourself better than many other vampires can, and from what I know of, you and your dad have managed to not hurt anyone for a really long time.” Edward nodded to confirm that he was right. “I think it’s time for you to stop punishing yourself and actually try out things for real. Find things you like, finish school, try to have a life instead of hiding from it.” Jacob squeezed the hand. “I know it’s harder to do, but I think you’ll do well. And I don’t mind helping you, seeing as we’re clearly on our way of becoming friends.” He winked, and noted to his surprise that Edward was turning red. Briefly, he wondered if vampires needed to be well fed to blush. 

“...Thank you.” Edward crawled a little closer, and pushed himself into Jacob’s arms, hugging him. The contact made the werewolf’s heart beat faster, and he smiled as he embraced the hamster back. 

For a while, they were silent, until the DVD player made a noise, making them both return to being aware of their surroundings. Jacob hadn’t been worried about being bitten by the vampire at all. He got up and began starting things to make the projector light up the sheet in front of them with the menu for the DVD. 

“Jacob?” Edward asked as he sat back down. “I don’t know anything about psychology. Do you really think I would make a good therapist?”

“Well, you’d have to study for it, like any other person who’d want to become a therapist.” He reached out and pulled the other into his arms, wanting the hamster to rest on his shoulder. “You’re already reading minds no matter what, might as well get paid for it.” He finished with a wink, and hit the start button on the remote. 

After they finished the movie, Jacob turned to Edward, and was quickly overwhelmed by the hamster’s rambles about the differences between the movie and the book. He also continued on speaking about the later books in the series, and how they tied in to the character’s back stories. It was rather endearing, despite the other being more than a little vague as to avoid spoiling the plot for him. Jacob decided that he really did need to read those books, just because he wanted to make the hamster happy, and be able to talk to him about things. Edward smiled at him, in a way that seemed bright even, unlike the small smile Jacob was used to seeing. It made him feel like he had accomplished something. He would definitely read those books. 

After the rambles, Edward got to pick another movie, and he picked out The Godfather from the Black family’s stach of films. Jacob knew he had seen it before, but he couldn’t remember much of it. To his surprise, that was the movie with the horse head in the bed. Edward glanced at him during the scene, and the werewolf hastily avoided eye contact. He definitely did not project embarrassment.

When they finished their movie night, the time was close to midnight, and Jacob was getting very sleepy. Edward offered to go home on his own, but the werewolf was having none of it, as it would mean that he had broken his promise to Sam. After some very calm arguing, Jacob agreed to coming with Edward in his car, and then walk home, and by walk, he meant run home in his werewolf shape. 

“This is one fancy car.” Jacob commented upon sitting down in the passenger's seat. “Do you have a thing for driving fast?” 

Edward shrugged as he started the car. “I do like driving, but I’m not sure if I want to go that fast. This one is a lot more smooth to drive than other cars I’ve had, I think I like it more because of that.”

“It looked like it would be more cramped inside. There is a lot more room for my legs than I was expecting there to be.” He looked over at the hamster. “Hey, seatbelt on.” 

“...Oh, yeah. I… tend to forget that.” Edward looked somewhat distant, as if he was remembering something. Jacob had no idea what that was about, but he was glad to see that the other did reach out and put the belt on. 

“You’ll be stopped one day and that will be something the cops complain about. Better make it a habit, seriously, how do you keep everyone from knowing that you’re not human?” To his satisfaction, the vampire groaned as they drove away. 

Jacob was mostly half asleep throughout the journey. Edward was a good driver, and he felt safe in the passenger's seat. It was easier to drift off than it was staying focused on the road. He was woken up by the gentle touch of a cold on his cheek. Blicking himself awake again, Jacob sat up with a yawn. 

“I’m awake. I was awake. I didn’t fall asleep.” He rubbed his eyes, blinking at the surroundings to determine where they were. 

“Of course not. You weren’t asleep at all. That snoring was just you…”

“Talking.” Jacob filled in.

“Of course.” The hamster was looking at him, smiling still. 

“I suppose I am getting out and wandering back to my home, then?” Jacob stared into the darkness of the forest, he was pretty sure that he could see something in the dark which might have been werewolf eyes, observing the car. 

“I suppose you should.”

Jacob didn’t fail to pick up on the hesitation in the other’s voice. He turned towards the hamster, and without hesitation or shame, he leaned over and kissed the vampire on the lips. 

Lips touching once turned into lips touching twice. Two kisses turned to makeouts, and the two of them found that the other also longed to touch. After a while, the only things separating them were the handbrake and their seatbelts. Edward pulled back first, and Jacob was more than satisfied to see that he was panting slightly. 

There was an awareness between the two of them that their bodies wanted more than just kisses and small touches. Jacob was very hungry for more, but one really just shouldn’t have sex with any person who one found attractive. That behavior wasn’t really a long term workable one, and Jacob was trying very hard to not let his hormonal body steer his head. Sex was intimate, naked, and it could be very frightening. Even if his body said he was ready, the werewolf knew that he wanted to know more about the person he had sex with, least not be uncomfortable later. 

He was met by a smile from the hamster. “I understand.” Edward said, reaching out to touch his cheek. Jacob eagerly kissed his wrist. “It seems we both want the same thing, but I agree that we should wait. At least until we’re dating.” 

The werewolf grinned back. “You make that sound like an absolute.” 

To his great satisfaction, the hundred year old hamster blushed in response. “I was… I was just answering what you were thinking.” 

“Thinking it doesn’t mean it’s an absolute.” 

“I… I…” 

Jacob laughed and kissed him again, nuzzling his nose against the other’s cheek. “You know what? Let’s just date.”

Edward’s jaw dropped in a moment of absolute surprise, one which Jacob would fondly remember in the years to come. “I… We… That was… without ceremony…”

The werewolf shrugged. “You want a bigger crowd? Aren’t seven werewolf witnesses enough for you?” He saw the other begin to look around, trying to spot the werewolves in question. “You can’t read their minds?”

“...No, they are too far away. I assumed they were… less.” Edward looked into his eyes. “Based on your thoughts, I thought they might not be… you were so… calm, and you… you kissed me and… all…”

“Do you know that you’re rambling?” Jacob was trying and failing at not chuckling at the other’s behavior. 

“I just… You just asked me to… date you…” He looked happy, but a little overwhelmed. 

“As you said, it seemed to be an absolute, so might as well surrender myself to fate.” 

“I… Oh, God.” Both of them stopped as the vampire had said god’s name out loud. 

“...So I guess the god thing is not a problem either?” Jacob asked, trying not to be too amused. 

“I… no, not really. Although I don’t tend to pray in general, that was… a surprise.” He swallowed, staring out into space. 

_Boyfriend_ , thought Jacob. 

“A-ah…” Mumbled the vampire, all red in the face again. 

_Boyfriend, boyfriend, boyfriend_ , thought Jacob. 

“I-I heard you the first time…!” To his great amusement, Edward pushed a hand in his face, which Jacob happily licked to mess with him. “You are teasing me.” The hamster exclaimed outright. 

“Oh shit, he figured me out.” Jacob laughed, and unbuckled himself so that he could lean over and kiss the other better. When they parted, he was still smiling, as was the hamster. This time, the smile was so big that he couldn’t hide his fangs. 

“Don’t leave me waiting til Monday to send me a message?” The werewolf asked as he made his way to the door on his side of the car. 

“What am I supposed to write?” Edward asked, leaning over so that he could still see him. 

“Anything you want.” He smiled. “See you in school, Ed.” _Boyfriend._

“See you in school, Jeb.” 

Jacob remained in place, waving after Edward as he drove off, smiling like an idiot until he could no longer see the car. 

_Heh. Boyfriend._


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Was he going insane? It wasn’t like he had to go and see Edward’s family, he just knew that he shouldn’t leave his boyfriend alone in a time of need like this. Going into a vampire den alone seemed stupid as fuck, but at the same time, he knew that said vampire family valued the treaty and hadn’t eaten people in a long time. Hell, Bella had survived, with minor incidents. He would just get to Edward, they didn’t exactly need to stay there. Maybe they could take a walk or go somewhere, together.

The next day sure was an adventure, one Jacob would rather have taken another day, or maybe never. Sam very much wanted to talk to him about the vampire right there in the middle of the night, in the woods, but Jacob avoided it until the next day, when he had rested enough to be able to actually speak like a person and not like a sleepy creature from the Black Lagoon. When he had laid down in the bed, his head and heart had been racing in all kinds of directions. He was excited, a little scared and a little nervous, but above all, he felt happy. In the strange, giddy kind of way. He had wondered if it had been an alright thing for him to do, to ask the vampire to date him so easily, without getting to know him properly. He had a feeling that worrying about the ‘vampire’ aspect of Edward should be the least of his problems, the hamster wasn’t exactly being a problem because of it. 

Jacob had expected it to be hard to fall asleep, but to his great surprise, he had ended up falling asleep a lot faster than he had counted on, and awoke the next day with a phone filled with messages. He opened messenger, saw that Sam had written two messages, Edward had written 28, and his father had written two. The guys(™) had been writing throughout the night, but they always did, and he didn’t feel stressed about reading whatever shenanigans they were up to right at that moment. Jacob closed the phone, and trotted over to the kitchen to make breakfast before he dealt with anyone. 

With a turkey sandwich and a cup of tea in front of him, he opened messenger and began with reading the message from his father. It said that Bella had been taken into intensive care due to her mental health state, and that professionals were needed to treat her. The message went on to say that Billy and Charlie were staying at the hospital for the night, to be close to her, even if they weren’t going to be directly with her. With a very heavy feeling in his chest, he read the second message, which said that Bella would have to stay at the hospital for a while. She was physically unharmed, but badly off mentally. Billy went on to say that he would be staying with Charlie for a little longer, as he wanted to be there for his partner. 

It was a strange feeling to Jacob, while he of course couldn’t help but to worry about his childhood friend, he also knew that it was a lot better for Bella to get help from people who were equipped to deal with these situations. They would surely be able to help her a lot better than poor Charlie, who knew little to nothing about dealing with teenagers who suffered like this. He might be a cop, but that didn’t mean that he was an expert on the subject, and it didn’t mean that he could help. Jacob tried to think of what was best for Bella, and he couldn’t deny that her getting help from professionals was the better solution. 

With the new situation in mind, he proceeded to open Edward’s chat, and began reading. 

Edward Cullen: I made it home safely.

Edward Cullen: Not that you did ask, but I wanted to tell you nonetheless. 

Edward Cullen: I probably didn’t need to tell you, I hope I wasn’t a bother. 

Edward Cullen: Then again, none of the werewolves followed me any further, so now you know for certain that none broke the treaty. 

Edward Cullen: Did you go to sleep, Jacob? I hope you have a good rest. 

Edward Cullen: Sleep well, Jacob. 

Edward Cullen: I began re-reading Interview with the Vampire. It is as good as I remember it. 

Edward Cullen: It’s hard to not see the actors instead of the faces I used to imagine. 

Edward Cullen: The actors did a very good job representing the characters. 

Edward Cullen: I’m going to go for a jog in the woods with Emmett. Maybe we’ll find some rabbits as well. 

Edward Cullen: I’m back again.

Edward Cullen: During the run, I was thinking, and thus, I began wondering if we really did move too fast?

Edward Cullen: After all, I don’t want to make you uncomfortable. 

Edward Cullen: Don’t misunderstand me. I am very happy. 

Edward Cullen: Thinking about you makes me feel happy. 

Edward Cullen: That might have sounded a tad more emotional than I meant to be. Perhaps reading this book is making me too emotional. I will try to read something else. 

Edward Cullen: Perhaps it is alright for it to go this fast. After all, there is nothing saying we can’t separate if it doesn’t work out.

Edward Cullen: We could still be friends, right?

Edward Cullen: Is it normal to wonder if one will still have friendship after a breakup? That is to say, is it common for people to worry about gaining love but losing friendship? 

Edward Cullen: I used the internet, it seems to be a common worry. 

Edward Cullen: The sun has risen, does that mean that you are awake now? 

Edward Cullen: If so, good morning.

Edward Cullen: It’s eight o’clock. You should wake up. 

Edward Cullen: I’m sorry if that sounded demanding. 

Edward Cullen: I suppose you should sleep until you wake. 

Edward Cullen: It’s ten o’clock. Please. You’re sleeping the day away. 

Edward Cullen: I’m sorry again. I suppose I can still be nervous, even after a hundred years of living. 

Edward Cullen: Oh, I’ve written so much. Pardon. I will be better tomorrow night. 

So nothing had happened with the hamster, he was just a lonely fuck. Jacob smiled as he read the messages, thinking that the other really did write like an old man. Who really cared about punctuation in Messenger chats? Weirdo. 

Jacob Black: Good morning been up long?

Edward Cullen: Good morning. Only since eight. 

Jacob Black: Wow sleeping in are you on this fine here sunday

Edward Cullen: Haha. I hope I didn’t send too many messages? 

Jacob Black: There was no need for that many but it wasnt horrible to read. Did you find a new book to read? 

Edward Cullen: I began reading a book of psychology which I found at home. It is rather interesting. A little hard to read, however, so I did not read it for too long. I did, however, take some notes. 

Jacob Black: About what you said about dating though. Seeing as its something we both clearly want. I think its more annoying pretending that we dont feel things for one another rather than just admitting it

Edward Cullen: That is an admirable attitude. I do like it, as I said in my messages, being in a relationship with you does make me happy. 

Jacob Black: Arent you cute

Edward Cullen: I… don’t know about that. 

\---Jacob Black changed Edward Cullen’s nickname to Hamster---

Hamster: Now hold on there. 

Jacob Black: Yeah?

Hamster: How did you do that? 

Jacob Black: Magic. Also there is something i need to mention

Hamster: Yes, Jacob? 

Jacob Black: So, okay, it seems that bella had to be admitted into the hospital. Dont panic ok? She is safe not hurt and she will be taken well care of. Charlie and dad took her there yesterday they dont know when she will be out but im certain that it will be fine. You should not under any circumstances try to see her. Dont think that its your fault cause it isnt

Hamster: She had to be admitted? That is… horrible. Are you certain she will be alright?

Jacob Black: Things arent like they were back in your days. Mental illness can be treated and helped instead of the people suffering just being locked away so that they dont have to deal with them

Hamster: And yet, she was admitted when we were having fun, spending time together. That doesn’t seem fair towards her.

Jacob Black: Hey whatever we were doing doesnt have anything to do with her. We are allowed to do whatever the heck we want without it effecting anything but us

Hamster: I still feel guilty.

Jacob Black: Well you dont have to. And if you keep on feeling guilty i might have to come over to your place and deguilty you.

Hamster: ‘Deguilty’ isn’t a word. 

Jacob Black: Either way do you need me to come over?

Hamster: Am I allowed to want such a thing?

Jacob Black: Im coming over then but it will take an hour or two need to talk to Sam first

Hamster: I will talk to my family in the meantime. Make sure everyone is fed, etc. I will see you soon. 

Jacob Black: Dont go anywhere. Dont leave the house alright

Hamster: Yes, I shall wait. Not to worry. 

Jacob put down the phone and stared at his sandwich. Right, he had to eat too. He stared more at his sandwich.  
  
Was he going insane? It wasn’t like he had to go and see Edward’s family, he just knew that he shouldn’t leave his boyfriend alone in a time of need like this. Going into a vampire den alone seemed stupid as fuck, but at the same time, he knew that said vampire family valued the treaty and hadn’t eaten people in a long time. Hell, Bella had survived, with minor incidents. He would just get to Edward, they didn’t exactly need to stay there. Maybe they could take a walk or go somewhere, together.  
  
Strangely it didn’t bother him too much that his relationship seemed to have started off in a minor crisis. He liked being able to help Edward. It felt good to get to know the other. The crisis would sort of be there no matter what, even if they didn’t have each other. 

Right, sandwich. Nom. Nomnom. 

With his sandwich in his mouth, he opened up the messages from Sam, using the power of the sliced turkey to motivate himself for the discussion he knew he had to have with the pack leader. The two messages read that they needed to talk about the blood sucker, and that Jacob should call him when he woke up. He stuffed the rest of the sandwich into his mouth while thinking about how much he much he hated phone calls. 

Jacob postponed his call until after he had done the dishes, but as he sat down to call Sam he heard a knock on the door. He got a very weird feeling that Edward had returned without permission, and was standing outside his door, so he hurried over to avoid incident, only to find that it was just Sam. 

“Hey,” Jacob opened the door and let the pack leader inside. “I was just about to call you.”

“Too much sleep isn’t good for you.” Sam looked around in the house and headed towards the kitchen, where he claimed a chair to sit down on. “Is Billy not at home?” 

“Dad’s with Charlie. Tea?” Jacob pressed the button on the boiler before the other managed to answer in the affirmative. He knew what Sam liked, and soon enough, there was a cup waiting for its water standing in front of the packleader. “So… Fire away.” Jacob sat down opposite of Sam, pretending to himself that he wasn’t nervous. 

Sam took a deep breath. “I will be completely honest with you, I am not very experienced as a leader, despite having known I would become a pack leader one day. I have prepared myself for the times I will have to sit down with someone of my pack and talk to them, not as a friend or an unbiased party, but as a leader, who needs to keep the interest of my pack in mind.” Sam had begun fidgeting with the tea bag tag, playing with it as he spoke. “That being said, many people are uncomfortable, and worried, about whatever is going on with you. Why you’d bring a vampire into our territory, you know… those things.” He faltered at the end, and waved his hand as if he was trying to be dismissive. “Would you be, well, able to… tell me more?”

Jacob filled the other’s cup with water, and sat back down in front of him. “Well… Uh, yeah, where to start…” 

He opted to start with Bella. He told Sam a bit more about her, and what she was like, to then continue to speak about how she had been behaving around Edward Cullen. He made sure to make a point of how much she had hurt Edward. Perhaps it was needed to remind the werewolf that even the undead have feelings and can get hurt. Jacob told Sam about the talks he and the hamster had had, and how they had come to some manner of understanding for one another. It had started with a need to not make the other miserable, and he had discovered somewhere along the line that he liked Edward’s company. 

Sam was frowning at him, still playing with the tea bag. “You mean to say you like him?”

“Yeah.” Jacob shrugged. “One would think me making out with him would be enough for you to be certain of that, but there you go: I like him.” 

“Does he… like you?” Sam was frowning even harder, trying to wrap his head around the idea of a vampire liking somebody. 

“...One would think him making out with me would be-”

“Yes, yes, fine! I get it.” Sam remembered that he should remove his bag from the tea so that he could drink it. “Don’t you think it’s sort of suspicious though? I mean, a vampire, liking somebody… And not just seeing them as food. It seems like a trap, maybe he’s trying to trick you and then feast on you?” 

Jacob stared at him. “Have you completely forgotten how long it took Carlisle Cullen to establish that treaty with us? He has been wanting to be friends with us since before you or me were born, do you really think that he would assist in a plot to isolate and kill a werewolf?”

Sam almost pouted. “It could happen.” 

“Do I have to remind you that werewolves are stronger and sturdier than vampires? We are a whole pack, with over twenty werewolves. That little family of seven people would be completely overrun and killed if they tried to fight us. There is no strategical advantage to simply killing and eating me, I’m not important enough to make a difference in an all out battle.” Jacob explained to his pack leader. 

“But bringing him in here is still dangerous.” The leader tried to sound certain of himself, but he was failing. 

“For him, yes. He would be overrun in minutes. Not to mention that we could efficiently track down and kill him, or them, if they did attacked us first.” 

“But he… what if he hurts someone else than you, somebody who isn’t willing to take those risks associated with vampires?” 

That was a much more reasonable worry, and Jacob nodded before answering. “I will not let him be alone in our territory, or close to someone else. All I ask is that he is allowed here, under my supervision. I… I am not sure I like vampires as a whole. In fact, they are still creepy and unsettling and they smell of death but…” He tried to find his words. “I guess it feels a little silly to me that we would isolate ourselves from other supernatural creatures. The Cullens are trying very hard to not hurt anyone, and they are integrating with Forks rather well. People still think that they are a cult, but hey, they are not hurting anybody.” He licked his lips. “I’ve always felt out of place in human communities, I now know that vampires feel the same. We’re not Forks’ guard dogs, we don’t owe it to them to keep the vampires at bay and treat them like foreign enemies. Maybe that crazy Carlisle is onto something? We don’t have to be enemies.” 

“They smell like corpses…” Sam was quick to respond, but Jacob could see the doubt in his eyes. Sam also knew what it was like to be alone, and he knew what it meant to find somebody who could understand. 

“People smell differently, you should feel all the scents at the school I go to. It's just a scent, it’s not that strong, once you get over it.” 

“I really don’t know if…”

“Sam.” Jacob reached out and very carefully grabbed his hand. “Please let me do this, let me try to understand them. I will be the ambassador or whatever, and I will make sure that I don’t put anyone but myself at risk.”

The pack leader stared back at him, almost unblinking. “You know what happened to our people when we tried to integrate with the settlers.” 

Jacob felt his heart sink, of course he knew what had happened, and it made him feel very insecure that Sam would bring that up now, as a parallel. He closed his eyes, and took a deep breath. “You are right. Which is why I want this to be my mistake to make alone, if it turns out that the situations are similar. I don’t want the rest to suffer because of me.” 

Sam stared at him for what felt like an eternity. “...If nothing else, you are right that there's many more of us. And we will kill them if they attack you.” 

Jacob’s face lit up. “You’ll let me do it? Date him, I mean?” 

“You’re dating!?” Sam’s exclamation was louder than it had any right to be. Jacob winced. 

“I mean… yeah. Yeah, we are. Kissing outside of dating is very unfamiliar to that old hamster.” 

“How old is he… exactly…?” Sam blinked at him, like a big, confused dog.

Jacob took a deep breath, he had sort of expected this to be a bigger issue too. “Not as old as you’d think. He’s a little over a century, he was turned around the first World War.” 

“You do realise how creepy that is?”  
  
“Why? It’s not like he has gained any life experience, or like he is aging above 17, really. Sam, we get along, we’re having fun. It’s nice and fun to discuss things, to spend time together. Friendship is about having things in common, right?”  
  
“... Friends sure, dating is different.”  
  
“Ugh fine okay, I see the point. Actually he’s kinda nervous about it too, for those reasons. It might not even last, if we find that we don’t work out together. I wanted this. I asked him out. I already knew how old he is, and I already knew that he might as well have remained seventeen forever, the way he has lived. Once again, it’s my mistake to make. We’re not humans, things don’t work the same with vampires.”  
  
“So you’re a vampire expert now?”  
  
“Nah, but maybe I can become one,” Jacob chirped back. “Sam, I asked him out last night. We haven’t even had time to figure any of this out, which, by the way, we plan on doing, together. How about I keep you updated on what happens?”

Sam drank his tea, sighing loudly. “Fine. Keep me updated. I will agree to it, but I have to warn you that if he poses any danger to anyone, it is my duty as the pack leader to make sure that he doesn’t hurt anyone, even if that means killing him. You do understand that?” 

Jacob nodded. “I do.” He turned to look over at the clock on the wall, and realized that the talk had taken a long time. “Oh, I have someplace to be. If I’m not back at home tomorrow, you should probably start to worry.” He got up and headed into his own room to change into something that wasn’t pajamas. Sam followed him, and stood in the door while he changed, like a worried parent. 

“Are you going to meet him?” 

“Yeah, I’m taking him hiking in the woods or something.” 

“Or something… Well, this doesn’t seem planned.” 

Jacob finished dressing, and brought Sam along outside the house so he could lock the door. The pack leader continued to trail after him until he had pulled his motorbike out onto the driveway. 

“Jacob?” Sam halted him as he jumped up on the vehicle. “...Can I trust you?” 

Jacob looked him square in the eye. “I understand. You found paradise in America, you had a good trade, you made a good living, the police protected you, and there were courts of law. You didn't need a friend like me. But, now you come to me, and you say: "Don Corleone, can I trust you?" But you don't ask with respect. You don't offer friendship. You don't even think to call me Godfather. Instead, you come into my house on the day my daughter is to be married, and you ask me if I can be trusted?” 

Sam blinked at him, and then smiled. “Damn, I love that movie. Take care, Jake. I’ll see you later.” 

“Bye, Sam.” He pulled his helmet on and drove off towards the Cullen household.


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Is it sunny up there?” Jacob asked, the very picture of innocence. 
> 
> “...Yes.” The helmet clicked as he fastened it underneath his chin. 
> 
> “Your sister already told me that you will show me what you look like, and while I don’t really appreciate having the future told to me without my consent, I suppose you might as well surrender this time.” He grabbed the other’s cold hand, and they started to walk together once again. 
> 
> “I...fine. I will when we are at the top, if you show me yours.” Edward finally agreed. Jacob had to try very hard to not imagine something far more inappropriate to those words.

Jacob rang the doorbell to the Cullen’s house, holding his helmet in one hand as he waited for the door to open. He heard footsteps inside, and when the door opened, he found Edward standing in front of his family, who were all posing like they were in a Christmas movie, waiting to meet the love interest of their son’s. It was weird, and definitely not something humans would do. Edward smiled at him, nervously, sweetly, making him want to kiss the hamster right there and then, in front of his Stepford family. 

“Jacob!” The crazy looking girl with the delirious attitude approached him with outstretched arms, catching him in a hug. She reached to about his nipple height, but Jacob could feel how strong she was, despite being so small. She separated herself from him. “I’m very glad to meet you. I have foreseen that you will become a great friend of this family.” 

“That’s great and all.” Jacob smiled at her, managing pretty well in hiding how weird it felt to hear her prediction. “I was just going to take Edward out on a walk or something to help him keep his mind of troubles though. Uh, see you all in school?” He waved, awkwardly at the rest of the ‘children.’ 

“Oh, you’re not staying?” Alice looked up at him sadly, with her giant hamster eyes. “We were all excited to cook for you.” Behind her, the blonde woman vampire rolled her eyes at her pretend sister’s excitement. 

“I’m cool, thanks.” He grabbed onto Edward, and began pulling him outside the house. “I’m taking this one for a few hours. Have a great day.” Before anyone could object, he began pulling the vampire out on the veranda. 

“Wait, it… is somewhat sunny today.” Edward glanced up towards the sky, looking uncertain. The werewolf shrugged and handed over his helmet.

“That should be enough, right?” 

The hamster accepted the helmet. “...It will work. Thank you.” He put it on and pulled the eyeshield down. He looked ridiculous, but still cute. Jacob grinned at him. 

Alice was suddenly right next to them, and she placed her hand on Edward’s arm. “It will be okay. You will show him what you look like in sunlight before the day is over.” 

“Welp, I think those are enough predictions for today.” Emmett, the huge vampire, was suddenly by them as well, and he wrapped his arms around the delirious one and lift her up. She giggled, like a child, in his giant arms. “See you later, Eddie. Take care, Jake.” Emmett walked back into the house with his pretend sister, and shut the door. 

“So.” Jacob turned to the hamster, pretending that he couldn’t see the rest of the hamster family gathered by the window in the door to get a better look at them where they stood in the shadow of the poorch. “I was thinking of taking you on a hike. Just walk and talk, is that alright?” 

“I don’t mind,” came the muffled voice from inside his helmet. 

“You know the trails better than I do.” Jacob reached out to take his hand, and Edward gave it to him in an almost overly eager gesture. He smiled at the century old teenager and they began to walk. 

When he was certain that they were alone in the woods, and out of sight from the house, with shadows covering the ground around them and blocking out the sunlight, Jacob turned to take the helmet off his boyfriend. “Finally alone.” He grabbed the other’s face, gently, and leaned in to kiss him. 

Just like yesterday, one kiss turned into many, and by the time they managed to separate themselves, Jacob could feel an equally pleasant and unpleasant warmth in his pants. He wasn’t ashamed of his hard-on, but he also felt a little too much for the other to be able to handle. After all, sex in the woods was a lot nicer in theory than in practice. 

Edward avoided his eyes. “I...I think it’s far too early for us to think about s-sex…”

“Oho, us? So you were thinking about it too?” Jacob grinned. 

“I… it crossed my mind… That is all.” The hamster pretended not to notice that the werewolf sneaked his arms back around him, and hugged him to his chest, feeling the cold body against his own, much warmer one. Jacob accidentally imagined what it would be like to be feeling the other skin against skin, and he felt the hamster shudder with anticipation in his arms. “J-jacob… if you imagine it so vividly, I… I will…”

The werewolf leaned in to whisper in his ear. “What will happen then?” 

“I will… feel it too…” Oho. Another point to mind reading being a very nice asset. Edward wrapped his arms around him, holding him tightly back as he hid against his chest. They stood like that in silence for a bit, hugging, before the hamster spoke up again. “I feel your heartbeats. It is… really calming.” 

Jacob was a little nervous as the other mentioned heartbeats, but it turned out to be nothing to worry about, as the other was apparently just being cute. He ruffled Edward’s hair in return. “We should keep on moving, before I really start thinking about sex.” They reluctantly detangled themselves from one another. “How long are these tracks, by the way?” 

Edward pulled the helmet back on. “They lead up on the mountain and back again.” 

“Is it sunny up there?” Jacob asked, the very picture of innocence. 

“...Yes.” The helmet clicked as he fastened it underneath his chin. 

“Your sister already told me that you will show me what you look like, and while I don’t really appreciate having the future told to me without my consent, I suppose you might as well surrender this time.” He grabbed the other’s cold hand, and they started to walk together once again. 

“I...fine. I will when we are at the top, if you show me yours.” Edward finally agreed. Jacob had to try very hard to not imagine something far more inappropriate to those words.

The werewolf nodded. “I think that sounds very fair.” He felt his heart beat a little faster with the idea of seeing what the vampire looked like in the sunlight. Edward had already told him that it wouldn’t hurt him, so at least he wasn’t nervous about the other being wounded in the process. 

On the way up the mountain, they started to talk, chatting away about whatever Jacob could think of. He got Edward to talk more about the classical books he had read, and countered by telling him if he had watched the movie or not. After a while, it became more of a game of the hamster trying to figure out a book he had read which hadn’t been adapted into a movie or TV-show. Not everything could have been adapted into a movie, Edward had thought, but by the end of their climb, the hamster was becoming increasingly less certain if that was true. 

They were reaching the top of the mountain, where the trees disappeared and the sunlight was coming down in plenty, making Jacob sweat with the increased heat. He pulled off his jacket to keep it around his waist. Edward removed no clothing, and kept his hands in his pockets, shielding himself from the sunlight until the last minute. 

“So here we are,” said Edward, looking around them where they stood in the sunlight. 

“Haeeeah…” said Jacob, allowing himself to sit down and breathe for a bit. As he did, he looked out over the forest below them, and was more than surprised by the excellent view. 

Edward came to sit beside him, and for a while, they watched the world beneath them, with the wind ruffling Jacob’s hair and their clothes. They could see little Forks from there, and the place where Jacob’s pack lived in their little houses in the sanctuary of theirs

. 

“I never appreciated views like this when I was younger,” Jacob began, “I suppose it really proves that I have grown old, seeing as I suddenly find it so beautiful.” 

“Do things become more beautiful as one grows older?” The hamster who looked down at the world with him from inside the helmet, was frowning. 

“That’s what I’ve heard. I guess that proves that you really aren’t very old.” 

“I suppose it does.” The helmeted hamster leaned down to rest his head on his shoulder, so the werewolf took the opportunity to wrap an arm around him in return, holding him close. “I like this.” Came a low mumble from inside the helmet. 

Jacob held him a little tighter. “Me too.” He was silent for a bit. “But I think the view would be better without a helmet on.” 

He heard Edward sigh before he sat up, turning to look at Jacob through the eyeshield. “Why, I believed that we agreed that you would show me yours first.” 

_Don’t think of it. Don’t be inappropriate._ “Did we now? Alright then…” Jacob got to his feet and walked a little away from the other. Then he began to remove his clothes. Edward looked more than a little surprised, and he saw the other turn his head away. “You’ve seen me naked before, Ed.” He couldn’t help but chuckle slightly as he saw the reaction. “I’m just not up for ripping my clothes today. Lost my favorite shirt this way. Not doing that again.” 

“I will look when you’ve finished.” The hamster tried.

“Then you will miss the transformation.” Jacob teased him. He saw the other’s chest heave in a sigh before he turned back to look at him. The werewolf immediately got the impulse to strip slower and make it a show. 

“Please… just undo your clothes…” Edward more or less whined rather than spoke. 

“Since you’re so eager…” Jacob laughed as he removed the last of his garments, and put everything aside. Stark naked, he took a deep breath and allowed himself to act on the impulses which he was usually keeping under control. 

The werewolf transformation was painful, but it was brief. Every muscle was on fire, every instinct and impulse laid bare in his nerves, every pore was widening and throbbing as he changed. And then it was over, like taking a deep breath, and the world before him had changed. Jacob was big, but he often forgot just how big he was when he was alone with the rest of the pack, compared to when he was standing opposite a human. Or well, in this case, hamster. 

The giant wolf stretched itself out and shook its body, before it turned to look at the hamster. Like he had told Sam, the other did smell of corpse, even more so when he was in this shape, but that wasn’t the only scent he had. Edward had stood up now, and Jacob found that he couldn’t see his face at all though the helmet anymore. The hamster carefully reached out a hand towards him, and Jacob heard, from far away, the other’s unfamiliar yet familiar voice. The wolf shook itself, nature was loud, his impulses were strong, and to hear Edward speak, he needed to focus. 

“Jacob.” Edward said again. 

_That is me_ , thought the wolf, as he came over towards the outstretched hand. 

“Oh… I can still hear you.” The hamster smelled of relief as the wolf pressed his nose against the palm of the hand. 

The wolf noticed that something was off with Edward’s hand, so he stopped and sniffed on it. His view of things was different like this, and it was hard to make sense of what things looked the same and not as when he was human. The thought took hold in his head. _Hand. Hand? Strange hand?_

“...You can’t see it like that?” The hamster asked as he carefully moved around the wolf, stroking his fur with his cold, strange hands. The wolf’s tail wagged as he was being petted. 

_See? See what? Oh, scratch, scratch there. And there. Mmm…_

He heard Edward chuckle. “Here?” The words was followed by a scratch in just the right place. His tail wagged more. “You’re so...red. Nothing about your other shape is red, how come that this is?” 

_Red, red-_. The wolf searched for a meaning for that word, trying to recall its significance. _There is a squirrel over there, there is a bunny over there, those two birds are singing, and owl is resting there._

“Jacob?” The hamster spoke softly, still petting him. “Are you still with me?” 

_Edward._ The wolf turned and pressed his nose into the other's face, licking him. _Smells death. Smells good too._

“Is it always this hard for you to concentrate?” The petting had changed to scratches over his neck now. 

_No… it gets harder closer to a full moon. Getting there. Overwhelming at first. Collecting myself. Squirrel moving. Edward._

The hamster nodded. “I understand, take your time.” 

_Harder without a goal to focus on. Harder to focus._ The vampire chuckled and scratched him behind his ears, and to the werewolf’s mind, the sound was the most pleasant in the world. He pushed his head against the other’s stomach and nuzzled him, the tail wagging happily behind him. _Edward. Boyfriend. Boyfriend. Mate. Mate? Mate._ The word was followed by rather intimate thoughts, and he felt how Edward gently knocked him on the head. 

“Please, you are far too big. Not to mention that those thoughts are very indecent as it is.” Somewhere above him, Edward sighed, almost sounding nervous. “I think I’ve seen enough of this beast, would you turn back so that you can at least sort of control your mind?” 

Jacob agreed that his mind was running a little out of hand, and he was still curious to see whatever the other looked like in sunlight. Thus, he stepped back, and he was soon back in the shape of a human. Still stark naked, and perhaps a little harder than he was before he turned. Blood pumping throughout the body tended to do that to a man, meaning that his lower part was not only standing due to sexual reasons. 

When he looked over at Edward again, he could see that the other had put his hands in his pockets. “Alright! Your turn.” He grinned at the other, placing his hands on his hips as he did. 

The hamster could not look him in the eyes, or face him at all for that matter. “Would you… put some clothes on?” His voice was strained, and he wasn’t exactly looking at Jacob.

“I thought we were through this, but alright.” Jacob began dressing once more, and he was soon standing in front of the other with his clothes on. “Come now, stop teasing me and show me already. What happens to you in sunlight?” 

Edward took a deep breath, and pulled the helmet off himself. As the sunlight hit his skin, it began to shimmer and sparkle. Jacob blinked as the hamster pulled open his shirt to reveal more of his neck and chest, which also sparkled as the sunlight hit the skin. He glanced up at the hamster’s face, and saw a look of sadness and torture on it. 

Something burst within Jacob, and he began laughing uncontrollably. So much so that he needed to sit down. “Hoohh… Oh man… oh man…” He wheezed. “That’s what you were so worried about? You look like a stripper, all shining and… and… sparkles. Magic fairy dust. I’m dying…!” He tried to stop laughing but he couldn’t control himself. 

“Jacob, this is the skin of a killer…!” Edward tried, sounding almost scandalized at his reaction, but Jacob howled with laughter at his comment. 

“K-k-killer? Yeah, ‘cause Freddy Krueger and Jack the Ripper were famous for their fucking sparkles!” He fell down on the ground now, laughing himself to tears. 

“...” Edward slowly approached him where he rolled about on the ground, and knelt down next to him. “Doesn’t this bother you at all?” He asked, frowning like a sad puppy. 

“Bother me? You look like you have body glitter all over yourself! Actually, I think any respectable drag queen would say that you aren’t wearing enough glitter, but oh my fuck, you sparkle!” 

“It’s unsettling to people!”  
  
“Maybe it was in the Victorian era!”  
  
“I’m not that old!” 

“You sparkle!” 

“And you turn into a giant, horny dog!” 

“Why are we yelling!?”

“I don’t know!” 

They both stopped, looking at one another, and then broke down laughing. It was the first time Jacob heard the hamster laugh, truly laugh instead of simply chuckling. They laughed together, and when they finished, both of them were smiling at one another. Edward was almost smiling big enough for Jacob to see his fangs. 

“It… really doesn’t bother you at all?” Edward found his voice first. 

“Not at all.” Jacob reached out and ruffled the sparkling hamster’s hair. “It’s not scary, and it was only this funny because I expected something so much worse.” He took a deep breath. “Did I offend you with laughing?”

“No, mostly surprised me. It was a little… insulting, but I will forgive you because it’s you.” The hamster smiled carefully at him, clearly not upset anymore. 

“I’m sorry.” Jacob leaned in to kiss the other’s cheek, and found himself unable to not lick it, just to know what it tasted like. Edward didn’t make a sound of objection, but wiped his cheek off with the back of his hand. 

“Did I taste like diamonds?” 

“Nope. Just like normal skin.” Jacob grinned. “Should we begin climbing down into the world without sunlight?” 

“I suppose we should return to the darkness, like the children of the night we are.” Edward began buttoning his shirt, and then got to his feet. He stared at Jacob for a little bit, until he decided to continue speaking: “did you understand what I was making a reference to? See, in _Dracula_ , the book that is, when he speaks to Jonathan Harker, at his castle in Transylvania, Dracula hears werewolves howl, and he calls them ‘the children of the night.’ I thought that might be something you’d find funny as well, but I realized that you might not know it. Your mind didn’t react, so I thought I should tell you about my reference.” 

Jacob grabbed the other’s hand and had Edward help pull him up. He kept the grip on his hand, shaking his head over how cute the other was. “I got it. Would you tell me more about _Dracula_ on our way back, oh child of the night?” 

Edward blushed and continued to tell Jacob all about _Dracula_ as they walked back down the mountain and towards the Cullen household, located somewhere far below them.


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He spotted Jasper, the twitchy Chihuahua of a hamster, standing half behind the door frame, while peeking inside the kitchen.
> 
> “Is he thinking more stable now?” Jacob would normally be able to smell it, but as Jasper was standing outside the kitchen, and said kitchen was filled with so many scents that Jacob found himself overwhelmed. 
> 
> His boyfriend nodded. “He seems to have calmed down.” 
> 
> “Does he want to join or is he guarding me, seeing as I am new here?” Jacob was used to dog reasoning, it made perfect sense to him that an animal would want to keep their eyes on potential danger, rather than let it roam free unchecked. 
> 
> The hamster looked over at the Chihuahua and nodded. “He’d like to help.”

Jacob had every intention of dropping Edward off and driving back home, but as he was met by a very enthusiastic Carlisle Cullen, who had returned from work in town, he found that denying the man’s invitation might break the vampire’s heart. The vampire was ecstatic as Jacob entered their house, this time without the Stepford siblings standing there and staring at him. Edward smelled more than nervous as the werewolf was taken into the house, and the door was closed, but the werewolf himself felt surprisingly calm. If these hamsters had managed to not attack a human, then surely they wouldn’t be as foolish as to attack a werewolf. 

“Please,” Carlisle began, “let me introduce you to my family! How is Billy? I haven’t talked to him in ages, but I do so wish he’d respond to my emails. Does he read his emails?” Carlisle pulled Jacob inside. 

“Yeah, he just doesn’t like spam mails.” Jacob smiled at him and waved the man’s hand away. He was perfectly capable of walking on his own, and Carlisle accepted his statement. 

“Oh… does that mean I am writing too often? Perhaps I should write less often…” He mumbled to himself as they entered the living room, where the siblings were spread out. They had all been looking at the door where they entered from, leading Jacob to believe they had stared at the door since before Jacob entered the house. “So this is my family!” Carlisle waved behind him, making the hamsters stand up and more or less pose as if for a family photo. The old vampire moved around them and put his arm around his wife. “So this is my wife, Esme. And these are my children…” 

“Dad.” Emmett spoke up, breaking from the group and headed over to Jacob. “We go to school together, he knows who we are. Sup, Jake?” He raised his fist and the two of them fistbumped. “How was the hike?” 

“It was nice, the view was the bomb.” He looked towards Edward as he said that, having Emmett covering up where exactly he was looking from the rest of the family. The giant hamster seemed to follow his gaze and smiled; he might be big, but Jacob was a little taller. Jacob smiled back at him. 

The hamster known as Rosalie moved up behind her boyfriend, and appeared before him. Jacob wasn’t sure if she had sneaked in under his arm, or just walked straight through him or something. “First he doesn’t date for, like, eighty years, and now he switches from one girl to another.” Jacob chuckled as she called him a second girl. “I certainly hope that you are better than that last one. She was quite the nutcase.” 

“Rose…” Emmett began but Jacob continued before him. 

“Bella is a friend of mine. One I happen to be quite mad with for the moment, but an old friend nonetheless. I’d appreciate it if you didn’t talk like that about her. She has been a very shitty ex, and a shitty friend, but she was those things towards Edward, so only he has the right to talk to her that way.” 

“Her actions have affected us too, I have every right to be angry.” She crossed her arms over her chest. 

Jacob nodded. “You do, and you have the right to say that you are angry. But you shouldn’t say things about her being a nutcase. She is sick, mentally ill if you will, and if you want to seem like the bigger person, you shouldn’t go and talk about her illnesses to people.”

Her mouth became a thin line, he could smell that she knew he was right. “I’m just saying that she has been acting really crazy, and I don’t like her.” 

Jacob grinned. “Now things like that you can say all you want. Those are just opinions, not something presented as fact.” 

“Jacob.” Alice materialized to his right, and grabbed his arm. “I’m so happy that you came to stay for dinner. Have you said hi to Jasper yet or did I see that happen in the future…?” She trailed off as Rosalie wandered back to the couch and sat down, bringing up a magazine which she had previously dropped. 

“Speaking of the future,” Jacob grabbed his chance as he saw it. “In the future, starting from right now, I’d like you to not tell me predictions and such that you’ve seen, which involves me.” 

She blinked in response. It looked real. “Why?” Her smooth, dreamlike voice seemed to be very far away, despite her standing right in front of him. 

“Well, I like the future to be a bit of a mystery. I’ve seen a lot of shows and such where people become obsessed with knowing their future, and forget to live in the moment. I don’t want to become such a person, and I don’t like the idea of an inevitable, set future. If you see something very serious, like, deadly serious, I’d like you to tell me, but otherwise, let me be surprised. Okay?” He smiled at her, hoping that he didn’t come off as too forward. 

Alice smiled and nodded. “But what if I slip up? Will you be mad at me?”

“Nah. I assume it will happen, but if you can avoid telling me, I’d appreciate it.” 

She looked a bit like a child when she smiled back, innocent, unaware, and rather content nonetheless. “I will try. Jasper, come say hi.” She turned towards her partner, but the vampire in question was moving out of the living room. He smelled stressed and uncomfortable, possibly threatened as well. Jacob didn’t mind him leaving, and Alice turned back to him with that same delirious smile on her lips. “He will say hi later.” She wandered after him. 

“Welcome to the house, Jacob.” The mother of the pack came up to him next, smiling like a trained professional. She did seem motherly, at least more realistically so than the others pretended to be children. Jacob almost felt an urge to properly introduce himself as her son’s boyfriend, only to realize that she wasn’t actually Edwards mother and he’d be buying into the hamster lifestyle if he did, and he still didn’t support Edward living like that. 

Speaking of said hamster boyfriend, he glanced over at Edward who was looking almost shocked at him. He wasn’t a mind reader, and couldn’t exactly tell what made the other stare at him in such a surprised manner, as if he was doing… something. Maybe it was the hamster thoughts Jacob was having about the family. Edward didn’t smell upset anyway. 

While answering the pretend mother, he did his absolute best to picture Edward as a scandalized Victorian lady, pulling an appalled expression and reaction at him, and his grin grew wider when he saw his boyfriend pout. Edward would later explain to him that Marie Antoinette, whose likeness Jacob had used as a model for his image of a Victorian Lady, was a famous female example from the Rococo time period, and not the most ideal image for a Victorian woman. Not to mention, Edward would later add, that that style of dress was more connected to French fashion, rather than a universal fashion style. He would also come to know that no one had ever handled the family this way, so to say, and it was surprising to watch. 

“Thank you.” Jacob smiled at her. 

“We were just about to start making dinner for you, Jacob.” Carlisle beamed at him. “Why, I believe we have gotten rather good at making dinner, compared to back when we first tried it.” As he spoke, the family began moving towards the kitchen, like a herd which didn’t have any choice but to move where the sheep dog guided them towards. Jacob could outright smell the discomfort, and silent disapproval. He felt like he needed to speak up, while at the same time felt a strange discomfort of knowing that it wasn’t his place to just tumble over all of the customs of this household. It wasn’t really his problem, or his place to just turn their hamster cage upside down. He’d try to be careful. 

“Actually,” Jacob said, causing everyone to halt in their tracks. “I would much prefer to make dinner with you. Too many people in a kitchen is never a good idea, I believe only me, Edward and you, Carlisle, should make dinner together.” 

The family stared at him. Carlisle recovered first. “But we like cooking together. It is one of the many family activities we enjoy.” 

Silence hung over the room, and nobody would look at the father of the household. Jacob glanced at Edward, who avoided his eyes. Jacob took that as the hamster being able to read that only Carlisle was excited about making human food. 

“Actually…” Emmett was the first to speak up. “I don’t like cooking. It makes me feel sort of melancholy, knowing that I can’t eat it. If it’s all the same to you, I’d rather skip out on this round.” He rubbed his neck, glancing at his girlfriend. 

“I think food stinks. So much effort being put into it and it just stinks. I don’t really wanna touch it.” Rosalie crossed her arms, shaking her head. 

Esme looked at her husband, with a motherly look in her eyes. “I think Jacob might be right. He could show you and Edward how to cook, since you are actually interested in these things, dear.” 

Carlisle looked around at them, and then sighed. He didn’t seem as disappointed as Jacob expected, and if he was, he recovered rather quickly. “Oh, well… I didn’t know you all disliked cooking so much, but, um, alright then. Please teach me how to cook, Jacob.” 

“I’m no expert.” The werewolf responded as he followed the vampire and hamster into the kitchen. “But I’m pretty good with spices, if I do say so myself.” On their way to the kitchen, he grabbed Edward’s hand and squeezed it gently, reassuring the hamster that it would be alright. Carlisle wasn’t evil or mean, just misguided, and he could seemingly be reasoned with.  
  
Actually, Jacob was rather proud of them for speaking up, and he was sure that Edward could hear him thinking it. He wasn’t going to try to fix everything for all of them, that would be insane, but there was some bullshit he wouldn’t stand for. Besides, they had all smelled rather relieved when Carlisle didn’t seem all too upset. 

The kitchen was very strange to the werewolf. Everything that could be expected to be in a rich household’s kitchen was there: sharp knives, cutting boards, a mixer, a juicepress, etc. Everything was simply brand new and looked like it had never once been touched. It looked like a display kitchen, much more than it looked like a real kitchen in a real home. 

“So,” the vampire began as he started pulling food items out of the fridge and freezer. “We were thinking, that is… me, mostly.” He caught himself in the sentence, as if he was simply using the term ‘we’ out of habit, rather than meaning to impose his will on his pretend family. “That you, as a werewolf, would like something with meat. So these are our meat options…” He pointed at the various, very expensive pieces of meat in front of them. It seemed to Jacob that Carlisle had gotten enough food for his entire family, despite them not planning on eating anything. It was strange. 

“That looks like some fine meat…” He felt a little overwhelmed with the expensive food, he had never really eaten meat like that. “There is a lot of it, do you plan on cooking all of it?” 

“What’s the harm? You can bring it home and serve it to your family and friends!” The vampire looked excited again. 

“That’s not a bad idea.” Jacob smiled, completely honest in his feedback. Carlisle himself had no way of knowing, but Edward could probably tell that he was thinking of the food as decent bribing material for his pack. 

They began cooking, with Jacob giving instructions as to what to do and how to do it. He placed Carlisle in charge of the meat, as it seemed like a job which would make the man happy. Him and Edward were in charge of the vegetables and potatoes, cutting them up to have them baked in the oven. They did not get very far before Jacob’s phone began ringing. He wiped his hands off, gave Edward a kiss on the cheek before he fished the phone from his back pocket. It was Sam. 

“Excuse me, I have to take this.” He stepped slightly to the side, although he didn't leave the kitchen. Jacob didn’t turn his back to the vampires, but he turned away slightly. Edward could read his mind, there was no point in trying to hide away, and he had a feeling that Carlisle just didn’t mind...anything. “Sup, Sam. Did something happen?”

“Hey,” came the leader’s voice from the other end of the line. “Nothing happened, but you have been quiet for a while, so I thought I’d check up on you.” 

“I’m fine, we’re cooking, so if it wasn’t something important, I have to return to potato duty.” 

He could almost hear the pack leader frown. “But vampires don’t eat.”

“But I do.” Jacob smiled at Edward, who looked a little worried. “They say that I get to bring the leftovers back to all of you, the meat smells delicious, you will like it. But I really have to hang up now, don’t trust these veggies to be chopped without me.” He very much did, but he didn’t think that Edward could concentrate on what he was doing as long as Jacob was busy talking. 

“...Send a picture of the food.” Sam said before hanging up. 

“There, sorry to keep you waiting.” Jacob began putting his phone away, but stopped as an idea formed in his head. “Would you be alright with me taking a few pictures to send to Sam? I want to mess with him.” 

“Ooh, a friendly prank. Marvelous!” Carlisle put his hands together, looking very mischievous. “I do adore such things, as long as it is kept within reason and nobody gets hurt.” 

“I don’t mind either.” Edward looked like he needed a hug, so Jacob gave him one. It was a short one but it seemed very welcomed by the hamster. The vampire almost looked like he wanted to join the hug. 

“So, here is what we do…” Jacob grinned as he began explaining his plan. 

A few minutes later, he sent a few videos and pictures to Sam. One had Carlisle Cullen throwing salt on to the frying meat in slow motion, looking very much perfect as he did. Another had Edward chopping up potatoes very slowly, and then smiling awkwardly into the camera. The third had all three of them dancing to the beeps of the egg timer, whereas Jacob and Carlisle did an okay job, and Edward danced terribly. They had Emmett film their dance party. The rest of the pictures were shitty selfies of half of Jacob’s face covering the food, one which included all the family hamsters (who agreed to being in pictures) gathering to point at the food being cooked. 

After all that, they continued to actually cook for real, with Emmett staying to chat with them. That is to say, he was chatting with Jacob, and Edward joined in to speak a little here and there. The werewolf noticed that his boyfriend kept on looking over his shoulder, he ignored it at first, but finally found himself too curious to not look behind himself. He spotted Jasper, the twitchy Chihuahua of a hamster, standing half behind the door frame, while peeking inside the kitchen.

“Is he thinking more stably now?” Jacob would normally be able to smell it, but as Jasper was standing outside the kitchen, and said kitchen was filled with so many scents that Jacob found himself overwhelmed. 

His boyfriend nodded. “He seems to have calmed down.” 

“Does he want to join or is he guarding me, seeing as I am new here?” Jacob was used to dog reasoning, it made perfect sense to him that an animal would want to keep their eyes on potential danger, rather than let it roam free unchecked. 

The hamster looked over at the Chihuahua and nodded. “He’d like to help.”

Jacob turned towards the not-so-much teenager outside of the room. “How are your salad skills? We have a bunch of tomatoes which should be chopped up.” 

Soon enough, Jasper was on tomato duty. On the opposite side of the table, as to make sure that his possible violent impulses didn’t include the knife. He proved to be completely stable, to the point where Jacob struck up a conversation with him. That is to say, he spoke to all of them, and made sure to include Jasper. 

“Okay, but all of you are technically adopted by Carlisle, and haven’t known each other all your lives?” He looked between the hamsters. “I mean, you weren’t all turned by him, right?” 

“I was.” Edward began. “And I have been with him for as long as I’ve been turned.” 

“Does that make you the oldest of the siblings then?” Jacob asked but before anyone managed to answer, Emmett spoke up. 

“Take a guess. Guess who is the oldest.” He grinned, challenging the werewolf with his eyes. 

Jacob grinned back. “What do I get if I win?” 

“A chance to fight me, wrestling style.” The giant hamster pushed out his chest. 

“The honor! I dare not, fair maiden, believe myself worthy of such a delightful prize.” 

Emmett blinked at him. “Did you just call me a fair maiden?” 

“Yeah, something like that.” 

“You know. One day, I should try out a dress.” The big teenager, whom nobody really believed to be below twenty, crossed his big arms, nodding to himself. “In this day and age, there has to be something that can fit me from the women’s section.” 

Jasper looked at him. “You want to try on a dress?” The chihuahua didn’t look disgusted or bothered, but he looked doubtful. 

“Not actively, no. But I figured it might be fun for Rose. Then she could try out all that makeup on someone other than Edward.” 

“H-hey…” The hamster in question objected meekly, his cheeks having turned red. He was avoiding looking at Jacob. “If you were alright with that, how come she was only ever asking me…?” 

“Do I look like a mind reader?” Emmett stared straight into his eyes, causing Edward to look away, even redder now. Jacob noted to his delight that Edward’s blushing levels were at new heights. 

“Are there pictures?” The werewolf asked, the very image of innocence. Both Emmett and Jasper nodded. “I better ask to see them later.” Jacob concluded. 

“I thought you were guessing our ages…” Edward objected. It seemed his Victorian maiden heart had a hard time not being nervous about wearing makeup. Jacob wondered if he thought that he would think it was weird to Jacob that he was wearing it. As if not every single movie star had and was wearing makeup on a pretty much daily basis. Upon hearing him think that, Edward seemed less nervous. 

“I suppose I was. So far, I’d say you are the oldest, Ed. Uh…” He stared at Emmett and Jasper. Emmett seemed more youthful and alive, having a lot easier to speak like Jacob and keep in touch with the way and interests of the teenagers of today. Still, Jasper was twitcher, and worse at pretending to be a human, hinting on a younger vampire who wasn’t accustomed to the bloodlust yet. Maybe Emmett was just more interested in people, due to being older… Did that make sense? At this point, Jacob decided that he was overthinking it. “Emmett as the middle, and Jasper as the youngest?” 

Judging by Emmett’s grin, he would not win the prize of a wrestling match. 

“I’m the oldest.” Jasper spoke up as he placed the tomatoes into the salad bowl. “I’m 164 years old. Give or take. One really stops counting after a while.” 

“I’m probably past 90 by now.” Emmett laughed. “I didn’t bother to count, and nobody gives me birthday cakes with candles on to tell me my age.” 

Jacob looked at them both, beaming with interest. “That’s amazing. I can’t begin to imagine the things you’ve experienced, especially you, Jasper.” The chihuahua seemed a tad flustered by the praise. “Is it, like, private to ask what turned you?” 

“I don’t mind.” The youngest hamster began. “So… I had this absolutely horrible day, it all started with…” 

“Dinner is done!” Carlisle suddenly spoke up, looking much like a happy puppy as he pulled out the vegetables from the oven, completely forgetting that normal humans can’t touch things straight out of the oven with their bare hands, much less pick a warm tray out of said oven without gloves. “Everyone help get things out to the dining table.” He demanded, cheerfully striding out to the dining room with the smoking tray of vegetables. 

Jacob soon found himself seated by the table, surrounded by food, but alone with a plate. The Stepford Family of vampires all looked at him, unblinking except for Emmett, with a mix of happy and straight up absent expressions. Jacob was sitting by the end of the table, with Edward to his right and Alice to his left, straight ahead from him was the head of the family. Jacob briefly wondered if he had wandered into a horror movie. 

“Do try out whatever you want, Jacob.” Smiled the ringleader of the family, whom Jacob would have called something more horror-esque in his head, had it not been for how puppy-like and sincere the vampire was. 

“Yeah, sure. Thank you.” He began putting food on his plate, with the Stepford Family staring at him for every movement he made. “...Okay, sorry to make demands, but I can’t eat if you all stare at me. Do you guys mind talking or… something?” He glanced at Edward. _I feel like I’m on trial._

“Emmett could tell you his bear story.” Jasper suggested. Jacob’s eyes probably spoke volumes of how thankful he was for the suggestion, it took him a moment to register the fact that Jasper had in fact said ‘bear.’ 

“Oh yeah! Okay, so this is the story of how I was turned…” Emmett stretched himself up a little, and began telling it. Jacob noted how Rosalie rolled her eyes as her husband-boyfriend-partner-actually-what-did-they-call-their-relationship told the story of how he wrestled a bear and was then turned. During the story, he ate, and felt how Edward carefully placed his foot on top of his, as if to protect him. It was very sweet, and it made Jacob smile. 

After the initial discomfort, the family began making an effort to be natural, and people started talking to one another. It was stiff at first, but Jacob and Emmett managed to make things less tense with their casual talk. Jasper joined in more and more freely, the more the chihuahua spoke, the easier it was for Jacob to believe that he was over a hundred years old. He clearly seemed to know what he was talking about. Next to him, Edward was relaxed and seemingly happy. He didn’t speak a lot, but he had taken Jacob’s hand when he had finished eating, and was holding it underneath the table. It was almost as if the Cullens didn’t speak to one another, seeing how unused they were to the experience. Still, they managed. 

The day became evening, and evening began bordering on night. Jacob realized that it was getting late, and pointed it out to the rest of the Stepford Family. Edward helped him gather the leftovers into food boxes, and offered to drive him home, seeing as the bike couldn’t fit all the food on it. They borrowed one of the bigger cars from the family’s collection of them, and hoisted the bike up on the back of the car. They secured it, and Jacob went to thank the family for the evening. 

“The food was great. I had a lot of fun, thank you for having me.” Jacob smiled at them, and fistbumped Emmett. “See you in school. Good luck at work, Mr. Cullen.” 

He turned towards Edward and they were about to walk away when the hamster halted himself, and turned back towards his family, Rosalie specifically. “I would ask that you stop thinking like that.” 

All eyes turned towards the female vampire, who shrugged in response. “My mind is free, I am allowed to think whatever I want.” 

“Jacob is not Bella. He is not just a werewolf, and I want you to be respectful to him and his tribe. You can at least stop thinking that way when he is over.” Edward continued, in a way that made Jacob feel like he was looking at a different person. He had not seen the hamster so determined before. He-... sort of liked it. Probably. He hadn’t exactly had someone defend him like this before, outside his own pack. It felt somehow special. Still, the situation itself wasn’t comfortable. 

“Do you really want to have this discussion in front of your new girlfriend?” Rosalie snorted, crossing her arms over her chest. She was clearly pretending that she wasn’t uncomfortable over being called out. “Fine, first you bring home a human for the first time ever, and then you have her replaced with a new human the next month. You must know how desperate that makes you look.” 

“Children…” Carlisle spoke up, moving as if to step in between them. He was ignored.

“I’m not desperate…” Edward retorted. “And we aren’t going behind her back with any of this. I broke up with Bella, I have the right to be with somebody I like, rather than force myself to be with somebody who is hurting me.” 

“You men are always like that!” Rosalie raised her voice. “You brought that mess into this household, you had us interact with her while she got to know everything. You let her fall in love with you, and now you just throw her aside to redo the whole thing with a guy? When are you going to be satisfied? How many times do we have to pretend to be a happy family for the sake of you bringing home more and more humans who could never understand us!?” There were tears in her eyes now, it seemed as if years of subdued emotions welled to the surface as she blamed Edward for bringing home a false happiness which the hamsters could never hope to achieve. At least not when stuck in their cage. 

“Rose…” Emmett moved to put a hand on her shoulder, but she pushed his hand aside and stormed off into the house. He mouthed ‘sorry’ towards Jacob and followed his probably-girlfriend-wife into the house. 

Jasper sighed, and looked towards Edward, who shook his head. Alice had put her hands over her ears, shielding herself like a child. Esme looked overall bothered and Carlisle looked like he had no idea what to do. 

“...I should drive Jacob home before his family gets worried.” Edward took his hand, and pulled him towards the car. The werewolf followed without objection, thinking about what had just happened. People often thought themselves to be able to handle situations like the one which had just happened, but when they were in it, acting became harder, until it had actually passed. Jacob now found himself wondering if there was something he should have or could have done, while also feeling numb. 

They got into the car, and Edward drove off, a little too fast to be comfortable. Jacob thought about things to say, but he was still drawing a blank. To his surprise, Edward spoke up first. 

“You’re not a replacement.” 

Jacob blinked. He didn’t have to speak up, as the other man could read his mind, it wasn’t needed for him to respond verbally. Edward would know that he had never even considered such a thing. 

“Rosalie… she…” Edward hesitated. “She has had it rough. She was betrayed by her husband to be, and she would have been killed by their cruelty had it not been for Carlisle turning her.” There was a distance in his eyes as he spoke, it was clear to Jacob that the other looked back upon memories from long past as he spoke. “She was unable to look at me or Carlisle for years afterwards. She only stayed with us out of necessity, but she was terrified of men after that. She doesn’t see Bella anymore, she is projecting her own experiences onto her. She… really doesn’t like being reminded of what she can’t have.” 

“...What she can’t have?” 

“A family.” Edward was driving slower now, it seemed as if he had regained control over his emotions as well as the car. “The perfect family of a wife, a husband, and children. All living happily together.” 

Jacob frowned. “She… wants a child? Is that it?” 

“Not all of it, but part of it. It… hurts her to see people change partners, she wants to believe in a perfect love between a woman and a man, despite all she has been through. Don’t get me wrong, she still loves Emmett, but she wishes that she could have met and loved him as a human, rather than a vampire. Had a normal life with him, those kinds of things.” 

Jacob was silent for a while. “You all really need to get out of that hamster cage. It isn’t good for all of you to pretend like this, while wanting other things. Sooner or later, you will explode, like she did back there.” 

It was all so clear, after having seen them: the Cullen family all had their own desires, their own dreams, and they were steadily being swallowed by the ideals which Carlisle Cullen was pushing on them. A family living in one place until people noticed that they weren’t aging, forced together without the ability to do what they wanted or needed to reach fulfillment in their own lives. It wasn’t a cure all, the family was choking on their own existence. Rosalie couldn’t get her own child but surely she could travel, try new experiences, or find ways to make herself happy, rather than shutting herself away from the world as to not see other happy couples with children. Surely, the key to her happiness had to be able to be found in other places than just children, or just isolation? He wouldn’t call himself an expert on the topic, but at the very least it was commonly suggested to be unhealthy to obsess over what one can’t have, instead of living out other possibilities. 

“...I’m starting to believe you are right. If I hadn’t met you, or spent time with you, I might have believed what she said. Now I know that she doesn’t mean it. I… Don’t think I would have been able to speak up about being dissatisfied with her thoughts if you hadn’t been there.” The hamster’s cold hand found his own, and Jacob squeezed it back. 

“You’re making me blush.” Jacob chuckled. 

“Thank you, Jacob.”

“Thank me for what?” 

Edward’s eyes smiled alongside his lips. “For being a good friend, and a good influence.” He chuckled. “I almost feel alive again.” 

“Now that sounds dramatic.” 

They both laughed, and Edward squeezed his hand in a way which Jacob translated into ‘I love you.’


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The doorbell rang again and Jacob jogged over to open the door, now mostly dressed. Sam was standing before the pack, looking rather happy and relaxed, but as soon as the door opened, that expression disappeared from his face. 
> 
> “Jacob… what” Sam began, but from somewhere behind him, another voice called out.
> 
> “Holy shit, it’s a vampire!” 

When Jacob came back home after having followed Edward to the edge of the werewolf territory, he more or less collapsed in bed. It was so damned impractical to have to follow him around just to make sure that no uninformed werewolves thought that the vampire was invading… It had been a long day, and Jacob only bothered to send a message to Sam, telling him that he was home and that the werewolves could come get their food the next day. After that, he kicked off his socks and made his way under the covers, much like a drunk seal would, if seals had beds.

Jacob woke to a tapping on his window. Groggily, he sat up, and found his boyfriend standing outside. Jacob considered laying back down and sleep again, but he was suddenly wide awake with the realization that he was probably not dreaming and Edward would be stupid enough to be outside of his window in werewolf territory. The werewolf jumped up and opened the window, grabbing Edward by the neck and pulling him in in the least romantic way possible.

“Fucking… I… What the heck are you doing here!? Are you alone? Fuck, tell me I’m dreaming, were you followed?” He very calmly assaulted the floored hamster with questions. “Edward, are you nuts? You could have gotten attacked and freaking ripped apart!”

“I wanted to see you again.” The hamster got up from the floor, brushing himself off. 

“You wanted to… You have to TELL me if you are coming!” 

“I did. I sent you a message on Messenger.” Edward sat down on his bed as Jacob leaned out his window to make certain that nobody had noticed the unwelcomed but sort of welcomed guest. “I thought you read it.” 

“I haven’t read anything, why did you think I had?” Jacob shut his window and stopped over to check on his phone. He had indeed a message from Edward that asked if he could come over. The werewolf groaned and turned back to his boyfriend. “Okay, no more showing up without me saying it’s okay. It’s dangerous for you, and kind of creepy as well.”

Edward nodded. “I’m sorry. It’s a little tense at home, and I missed the calmness of your thoughts.” 

“That is very sweet but I am still mad at you for being careless and stupid.” Jacob huffed, trying to avoid thinking of what could have happened. He didn’t want to think of it, but he couldn’t help but think of Bella, and the way she had put herself in danger for the sake of attention. This was different, but the end result was still the same: someone he cared about could have gotten hurt. 

Edward shrunk together, looking rather sheepish. “I’ve not had to worry about these things for so long, dying, being hurt and the like… I was very careless, and rude, you are right. I’m very sorry.” 

Jacob shook his head. “I’m glad you understand, please don’t be so careless again and I won’t have to worry about you, alright?” 

“Alright.” Edward nodded as Jacob stepped up on his bed and let himself fall down on it. Edward removed his shoes and his socks, after some hesitation, he removed his jeans as well and crawled down next to Jacob under the blankets. 

“How bold of you, Lady Victoria.” Jacob imagined a Victorian lady as he said the words, thus showing the hamster that he was joking. 

“You wanted me to do this… I could have kept my pants on.”

“No way.” Jacob reached around the other and pulled the cold body closer, burying his nose in the hamster’s hair, breathing in the scents which belonged to his boyfriend. The scents which made Edward. “Though I will have you know that I am a teenager, who is laying in bed with a person I like very much. I take no blame for how my body might react, but I will take responsibility for it, and move if I make you uncomfortable.” 

The hamster snuggled up to his chest, hugging him back, and it felt like the most natural thing in the world to be doing. “You are still wearing pants.” The voice which left his partner was clearly filled with disappointment. 

“I… you’re right. Is that really fitting for mylady? To be pantless in bed with one such as me?”

“One such as I.” 

“...One such as I. Thank you.” He moved back in his rather small bed, and managed to worm his way out of his pants. He threw them over Edward, and was surprised as he felt cold, careful and gentle fingers brush against his thigh. He felt his breath stop in his throat, before he slowly moved back closer to the hamster, whose eyes were visible in the darkness, unblinking, staring, deeply golden eyes. 

“I’m not a virgin, Jacob. You don’t have to be that worried about me.” Jacob could feel the vampire smile, even if he couldn’t see him when the other had his back to the window. Edward hesitated. “Though I didn’t come here to ask you to do something like that...I mostly wanted to see you, and spend time with you, I didn’t…”

Jacob kissed him, before his explanation became a ramble. It started with a kiss, but it quickly became more, as they dared touching one another. Touches lead to embraces, and Jacob quickly felt himself becoming more and more excited. At first, he was embarrassed about it, and he felt a voice in the back of his head tell him that he was still with an apex predator, one he shouldn’t lower his guard to. Still, Edward practically reeked of submission. There was not a single fiber of his being which felt like it could raise a finger to harm Jacob, and that made it easier to ignore the possible dangers. 

“Jacob…” Edward whispered, as if raising his voice would be enough to break the desire which laid thick around them. “Jacob.”

“Yes, Ed?” In comparison, Edward’s voice was like the whisper of a doe’s movement, so fragile and elegant, while Jacob’s voice sounded like a hog bursting through a convenience store. It made him feel like he broke the mood, but Edward was still smiling. 

“Would you be, I mean, do you want to… I would like to…” It was very clear what he was talking about, and despite the hamster clearly wanting it, it seemed to break the Victorian Code to speak the word ‘sex’ out loud. It was a little silly, but it did fit the other to want something and being unable to say it. 

Edward huffed, clearly having read his thoughts. 

“I want it too.” Jacob found that it was easier to say than he had expected it to be. They had said they wouldn’t rush things, but, eh, that got a little harder right there and then, when both so clearly wanted the physical contact. Perhaps there really wasn’t any harm, if both were okay with it and comfortable. Maybe Edward having trouble speaking the words made it easier for him to feel brave? Was that a clever hamster trick? “But… I’ve never done it. I mean, I’m not going to be all that good, and I am kind of big and such… I’m just… nervous, I guess?” 

There wasn’t a thought in his mind that he wasn’t going to be the one inside Edward. First of all, the other was submissive to him, but not in the kind of way which made him completely passive. There was an understanding between them, something more animalistic than human, that the hamster was submitting, allowing Jacob to lead where he wanted, and filled the gaps with an equal desire of his own. When Jacob didn’t know where to touch, or being uncertain if he was doing things right, the mind reader would simply tell him straight out what he liked and didn’t like. The werewolf got the impression that the other was going to behave the exact same way during the act, as he was surrounding it. 

Edward sat up slightly, and moved his hand to gently pull it through Jacob’s hair, causing the werewolf to sigh with contentment. “Seeing as you are rather big, and rather inexperienced, it would probably be better if I was the one to be inside of you.” 

Jacob blinked. “Wait… You’re going to…?” 

“I thought so, I have to teach you how to spread someone properly, and I’m not sure I trust you to be able to remain collected throughout the act this close to a full moon.” 

Jacob opened his mouth, then shut it again. The hamster made complete sense. It seemed far more reasonable to have the other be inside him than the other way around… Yet he was feeling tingles of uncertainty. “I… I suppose I am not against the idea, but, uh…” 

“No, it doesn’t hurt” responded the mind reader. “And it does feel good. Not for everyone, always, but if you know what you are doing, it will be very pleasant.” He stroked Jacob’s hair with his fingers once more. “And if you really don’t like it, we can switch. I think it’s important that you know what you are doing before you do it to anyone else, I suppose it’s called the ‘do not onto others what you would not have them do to you’ rule.”

“Edward… Did you just quote the Bible? Are you quoting the Bible to me in sex related context?” He could barely hold back his laughter. 

The hamster huffed. “Please, the Bible did not coin that saying.” Jacob could tell that he was red in the face, despite everything he was saying. 

“Okay, yeah, I will try it out. But, uh, you won’t get like… mad if I don’t like having stuff up my ass, right?” 

“Jacob, do you hear how very illogical that statement was…?” He could practically hear Edward raise his eyebrow. 

“Okay, yeah, you’re right. Sorry, that was rude.”

“A little, yes, but it’s fine. Now where is the lube? You have condoms too, right?” The hamster leaned his head to the side, looking at him expectantly.

Edward remained on the bed, sitting cross legged upon it as he waited for Jacob to find the items, which were hidden away underneath the bed. He had to turn on the lights to look for them, which made Jacob feel like he was ruining the mood. In porn, everything was already prepared and easily accessed, and the people in the video didn’t tend to stop at longer stretches to talk or search for condoms. It felt sloppy on his part, and an illogical part of him said that his partner was disappointed with the whole halting business. 

“I am not disappointed.” Edward spoke up. “I’d much rather this be done right than heed to some imaginary movie standards. The mood or the feeling or such are just concepts, they can be recreated anytime you are ready for them. Enough gay people have been lost to the cruelty of sexual diseases for us to simply ignore condoms based on porn stereotypes.” 

Jacob smiled. “You’re right, you really do well in a teacher role, maybe that should be your profession.” He laughed, pushing back the uncomfortable thoughts about sexual diseases and death, those things were horrible and beyond tragic, but he didn’t need to think of them right this second. He found the condoms and the lube and got back up onto the bed. After a deep breath, he looked at his boyfriend in the faint light of the desktop lamp. “Okay…. I am ready, I think. Guide me through this, please?” 

Edward kissed his cheek, snuggling him gently with his cold nose. “As you wish” then he added, in a subtle voice. “Don’t worry, I will be gentle.” Mind readers were actually really nice when it came to these sorts of things… Jacob couldn’t help but smile with relief. 

Jacob was very embarrassed at first, not because he was ashamed of his body or because he didn’t trust Edward, but because lying butt up was outside of his comfort zone. It was a little bothersome that he couldn’t see Edward, and it made him want to hold his breath until he was sure that he knew where the hamster was. Of course, the hamster noticed, and decided to talk to him instead, telling him what he was doing, allowing the werewolf to feel less tense. 

The other carefully probed his opening, until the finger could enter without too much resistance. Jacob was worried about being dirty, but the hamster assured him that it happened, and it was overall a lot healthier and cleaner than it would have been back when Edward was human. The other also made a note to tell him that one should never have long nails while doing something like this. 

One finger was replaced with two, as he was gently spread open. Edward encouraged him to touch himself, allowing himself to feel good on his own terms while exploring something new. Jacob found that the pleasure of his own hand made the slight discomfort of the fingers almost disappear. As he thought of the discomfort, his boyfriend pointed out that fingers have bones in them, and members do not, thus making Jacob even more curious as to what the other would feel like inside of him. 

When the spreading was done, and Edward excused himself to wash off his hands, Jacob caught himself longing for the attention of those cold, gentle fingers. It definitely wasn’t as bad as he had feared that it would be, and he was excited about what would come. 

Before he entered him, Edward reminded Jacob that he could ask to stop anytime. Jacob appreciated the reminder, even if he knew that the mind reader would be able to tell if he wanted him to stop or not. The head carefully pressed against his entrance, alongside a gentle voice asking him to relax. Jacob needed to lower himself a little more before the hamster managed to find a good angle to enter him. Slowly, the head sank inside of him, and Jacob whimpered. More of the member entered him, until most of it was safely secured within him, every inch made him shiver with pleasure. It wasn’t heavenly, but it felt so much better than he had dared hoping. It was really hard to not lose himself in the relief of how good it felt. Somewhere above him, Edward said something about some people needing some time to adjust to the intruder before it began feeling good, but that good spreading could undermine the need for that short adjustment period. Jacob moaned in response. 

The sex was good. He didn’t know if it was because the other not-teenager was that experienced with sex, and that good, or if it was because anal sex just really was something he personally enjoyed, or if the hamster used his mind reading to make it as good as it was. Edward wasn’t too big for him, and the attention to his own member from his own hand made Jacob able to come. He would most likely not have been able to if it had not been for the pleasure of his own hand. Edward would later confirm to him that a man cumming from just being fucked without being touched was possible, but very, very, very unlikely. He went on to add that it was the same for most women, especially in an age where sex toys were so cheap and universally buyable. When asked how he was so aware of sex toys compared to normal things like movies, he did not reply, but blushed in a manner most easily describable as furiously. 

After they were both done and satisfied, Edward pulled out of him, just as it started to ache from having him inside. He carefully wrapped the condom up without spilling, and threw it away rolled together in a bunch of paper. Jacob groaned, he could feel that he had been fucked down in his stomach, but it was pleasant in a rather confusing way. He caught Edward in his arms, and pulled the hamster close, completely having forgotten to worry about having a predator on top of him. He had been able to feel the other’s strength and his power as he had moved, but now Edward just felt like a submissive hamster once more, who curled together on top of him like a tame pet. Not that hamsters were submissive creatures, oh no. Those little monsters. 

“...Why are you thinking of hamsters?” The hamster on top of him was looking at Jacob with Golden eyes. He looked very content and Jacob had to stop and look again before he realized what was different with the other. Then he noticed that Edward was smiling so big that the vampire teeth were fully visible. Edward in turn seemed to notice his thoughts, and quickly stopped smiling, moving as if to hide his mouth against his chest, but Jacob caught his face in his hands. 

“Oh no, you’re not going anywhere with that cute smile. Let me see those teeth.” He grinned, causing the hamster to grin back at him. Yeah. Vampire teeth? Very high up on the list of ‘things I didn’t think I’d find freaking adorable.’ 

“Mnhnm…” Edward said, clearly unable to welcome the compliments without feeling embarrassed. Jacob let go of his face and let the hamster hide against his chest. 

“...You have eaten, right? I am not up for waking up without the same amount of blood I went to sleep with.”

“Of course I’ve eaten.” Edward rolled over to lay on Jacob’s leg, allowing him to feel the slack, no longer hard member resting against his leg. It was pleasant and warm, and had he not just come, he would definitely have gotten hard from lying like this with another person, both of them naked and having bodily contact. “I wouldn’t want to endanger you in any way.” 

“That’s so thoughtful of you…” Jacob sleepily buried his nose in the other’s hair, hugging him. “...Were you able to come?” 

“Yes I did. You were very tight and it’s been a while since I did this.” Edward’s voice was muffled, as he was hiding against the werewolf’s chest. “I love how warm you are…” He mumbled, still lying more or less face down on Jacob.

“Love you too, Ed.” The werewolf chuckled at the other’s reaction. The hamster had opted to altogether hide against him, curling together quite a bit more, but at the same time, he was holding onto Jacob all the tighter. It sure was easier to say such words as a jab back to the other, but he was pretty sure that he meant them.

Then, whispered into his chest, like a sinner might whisper his confession to a priest, Edward’s vocal chords formed the words “I love you too.” 

Jacob had never felt his mind stand so completely still, until it was slowly filled with those very same words, echoing over and over until they were so loud that he thought he might be vibrating with them. The next second, Edward was on his back and Jacob was on top of him, kissing him with the enthusiasm of a love starved puppy who had just been adopted into its forever home. 

“H-hey...mhn… Jac-…” Edward kissed him back, but he couldn’t keep up with the werewolf’s enthusiasm. 

“Love you.” Jacob laughed, as he pulled away from the other’s lips. 

Edward smiled back at him, showing off his vampire teeth. “Love you too.” He sighed, and they returned to their earlier position, although the hamster was no longer hiding. Under the blanket, even the ice cold hamster became pleasantly warm, and Jacob was soon dozing off. The last thing he remembered was Edward asking if he could borrow a book while he slept, to which Jacob groggily responded to in the affirmative. 

Jacob woke to a loud noise which he couldn’t place. He sat up and almost tipped over in the bed but managed to catch himself. The noise was repeated, and as his eyes became accustomed to the world of the living again, he found that his hamster boyfriend was sitting on the bed, talking to him. 

“Wuh?” The loud noise repeated, and Jacob finally realized that it was the sound of someone ringing on the doorbell. 

“Somebody wants to see you. Actually, it seems like there are a lot of people out there…” Edward repeated, glancing at the door. He was fully dressed, and his hair looked perfect. Why did his hair always look perfect? 

“What time is it?” 

“Around twelve.” 

“...Oh fuck.” Jacob got to his feet, and began pulling clothes on. He could feel that he had been fucked, but it wasn’t painful or uncomfortable. It was just an awareness which he had to deal with. “Why didn’t you wake me up?”

“I tried, but you were really sleepy.” Edward handed him a shirt, which had been hanging on his bed frame. “So I left you be. Is something wrong? How come your pack is here?” 

“I invited them for lunch with the leftovers from yesterday. Fuck, I needed a shower… Oh boy, they will all know about yesterday…” Jacob whimpered to himself. It wasn’t that he was embarrassed over having had sex with Edward, but he was not ready to parade around with that fact. “Don’t worry though! Nobody would hurt you.” _I think._

Edward sighed. “Very reassuring…”

The doorbell rang again and Jacob jogged over to open the door, now mostly dressed. Sam was standing before the pack, looking rather happy and relaxed, but as soon as the door opened, that expression disappeared from his face. 

“Jacob… what” Sam began, but from somewhere behind him, another voice called out.

“Holy shit, it’s a vampire!” 

It was quickly followed by more voices, and all of a sudden, most of the pack had moved forward, into the house, and had surrounded Edward. The vampire blinked, looking around at them. Jacob feared that they would be aggressive, but to his surprise, he noticed that the young werewolves all seemed interested rather than defensive. 

“Oh man! I have never seen one.”

“He sure smells weird.” 

“He kinda looks normal though. I was expecting, like, red eyes or black hair… At least some makeup.”

“Or a chain collar.” 

“Show us your fangs!” 

“How much blood can you drink before you pop?”

“Why the fuck would a vampire pop like a balloon? The heck you thinking with?”

“Hey, his nails are normal!”

“Nosferatu teeth? Normal teeth? Do they extend like a snake’s?” 

Jacob looked back at Sam, who looked like a father who had lost all of his children to the singing of an ice cream truck, and was regretting everything careless thing he had ever said about his wife being bad at taking care of the children. He looked back at Edward, who seemed to have resigned to his position as a Christmas tree, doomed to be danced around until someone told the dancers to stop and come have dinner. Well, Jacob didn’t have dinner, but he did have lunch for them. 

“Hey, everyone.” Jacob called, and all of the pack plus Edward turned to look at him. “Lunch is in the kitchen, but it should be heated up. Anyone wanna chop up tomatoes?” 

Like a hurricane, the pack relocated itself into the kitchen, and without Jacob having to deal with it, they began preparing the food without any more instructions. Jacob, Sam and Edward were left in the hall, with Sam looking less than impressed. 

“I thought I made myself clear that that thing is not supposed to be on our grounds without my knowledge and consent.” The werewolf growled. “I’d like an explanation now. And a good one.” 

Before Jacob managed to speak up, Edward raised his voice. “It’s my fault.” Jacob realized that Edward might be about to confess something, and he quickly told the other to shut up inside of his head. The truth would not work with Sam, not in this case. Jacob was not prepared to let honesty get Edward killed. 

“No, it’s not. Edward helped me yesterday, and he ended up staying longer than planned.” It wasn’t actually a lie. None of them had planned on having the other stay that long. 

Sam was not impressed. “I’m not going to mention anything about you taking a vampire as your mate, that is your mistake to make, but if he ever shows up here again, without permission, I will count that as a breakage of the treaty. The Cullens will be hunted out then, and if we get our hands on them, we will hurt you.” He looked Edward in the eyes as he spoke.

Jacob avoided looking at the pack leader, but to his great surprise, Edward bowed to Sam. “Your patience and understanding do you great honor. Anyone else might not have considered to stay their anger. You have every right to be upset with me, and for your forgiveness towards my mistakes, you have my deepest gratitude and humbleness.”

Sam turned red. “U...Uh… That’s a lot of fancy talk there… Just don’t break the rules again…” Almost sheepishly, he wandered off towards the kitchen. 

Jacob looked at Edward, and imagined a Victorian Lady. The hamster leaned his head to the side, smiling like a scout, and pointed towards the kitchen, silently asking if they should be joining the group. 

As Jacob hadn’t eaten breakfast yet, he made sure to get some bread so that he could fashion a sandwich out of the meat, and some tea, one simply couldn’t start the day without tea. To do otherwise was illegal, Jacob was pretty sure. There was enough food that the werewolves all got a full serving each, and with some extra lettuce and tomatoes, they would all be satisfied with their lunch. Edward got a glass of water, which Jacob was surprised over seeing him drinking, until he remembered that blood was mostly water. Mh, he wondered if drinking water was to a vampire what like drinking soda for a human. Judging by Edward’s look, he was way off and the hamster might even think him slightly insane. 

Eating with werewolves was a loud affair. Everyone was noisy and spoke their mind, and they didn’t hold back on making jokes and laughing at them. It was the absolute and complete opposite of Edward’s family. One of the werewolves started throwing tomatoes across the table, and another caught them in his mouth. Everyone applauded. Edward seemed very unused to the whole energy thing, and he moved closer to Jacob as cheese started to fly as well, but he did not smell scared. 

After lunch, the hurricane of a pack began removing the items from the table, and then proceeded to clean the dishes. They were very efficient, but not everyone could wash and dry at the same time, as the kitchen was not that big. Jacob, Edward, Sam, and another werewolf remained by the table. She stared at Edward, and then suddenly spoke up. 

“What can you actually do?” 

Jacob had no idea what she meant, but the mind reader carefully smiled at her. “Think of a number.” 

“Okay.” She closed her eyes, thinking hard. 

“...Are you thinking of a number?” Judging by Edward’s scent, she was not thinking of a number. 

“Yes I am.” 

“...Is it ‘tomatoes?’”

“That’s not a numb-” Sam began speaking, but was interrupted by the woman. 

“How did you know!?” 

“I can always tell when a person is thinking of… vegetables instead of numbers…” Edward improvised. 

“Damn…” She looked impressed, as Jacob and Sam exchanged looks across the table. 

‘It’s really just a magic trick.’ Jacob mouthed to Sam, hoping that the other could read his lips. Judging by the other’s expression, he had no idea what Jacob meant, thus, he once more mouthed ‘trick’ very slowly. This time, Sam nodded. 

“The dishes are washed, leader, sir!” The pack returned to the table, whereas one of them saluted. “Are we heading out now or…?”

“Guys, you gotta look at the vampire’s trick!” The female werewolf told them. 

“What trick?” 

Edward smiled again, like a kindergarten teacher who was not very good at his job. “Does anyone have a coin which I may borrow?” 

A frantic search for coins began, and the werewolf to hand it to him first yelled in triumph upon finding the penny and slammed it down on the table. Edward picked it up, asked everyone to look closely, and then made the coin vanish out of thin air. He then picked it out of Jacob’s ear, much to the delight of the entire pack. Even Sam was impressed. Jacob even more so, he had no idea that Edward could do magic tricks. The werewolves had Edward do some more ear-appearing-coin tricks until they were satisfied. 

“Okay… Okay, so you can do magic… But are you strong?” One of the male werewolves asked, leaning over to stare at the vampire’s face. 

“I would say I am.” 

“Can you back it up?” The female werewolf who had thought of tomatoes instead of a number stood up. 

“What do you have in mind?” The mind reader asked innocently. 

“Throw! The! Ball!” The werewolves yelled at once, and dashed towards the door at the same time. Edward turned to Jacob, silently asking if they should follow. Jacob scratched the back of his head, feeling his cheeks heat with slight embarrassment. 

“So… it’s just… I mean, we tend to think that it’s fun to chase after objects, and balls are sort of made to be chased after…” He tried to stumble his way through an explanation. 

Sam sighed and stood up, slowly trotting after his pack, looking like the lone adult in a world inhabited by children. 

Jacob went to get a hoodie for Edward, and then grabbed a cap and gloves for him, and a pair of sunglasses. Everything to keep Edward’s skin from getting hit by the sunlight. The hoodie was, of course, far too big for the vampire, and he looked a little ridiculous as he exited the house looking like a joke of a spy. 

When they joined the pack, Sam was sitting on a log, surrounded by a pack of very big wolves. Sam had just pulled his arm back, and threw a soccer ball over the open field for the wolves to chase while they waited for Jacob and Edward. It was a rather sunny day, but the sun stood high in the sky, meaning that Edward was mostly protected from becoming a disco ball. 

The pack noticed them, and they came running over with the ball, leaving Sam alone on the log. The wolf who had caught the ball thrust it into Edward’s chest, and barked at him. 

“She wants you to throw it.” Jacob explained to his bundled up boyfriend. 

“Am I supposed to throw it as far as I can manage?” Edward looked at him for confirmation. 

“Yeah. Just lob it with all your might, I guess.” 

“...Very well…” Edward lowered himself down, like he was about to pitch a ball in a baseball field. The werewolves lowered themselves down, ready to rush after the ball, their tails wagging. The vampire threw the ball, sending it straight over the field and into the woods. Jacob blinked, he had not expected the vampire to be able to throw that well… The werewolves didn’t hesitate in the least, however, they dashed after the ball, eager to be first and bring it back. 

“Do you think… they will find it?” Edward looked after them. “I hope I didn’t throw it too far…” 

“Well… they can smell you on it, so it should be fine.” 

They stood and stared at the forest for a while, until the pack came running back, the werewolf in the lead carrying the ball in her mouth. She pushed it onto Edward and lowered her head slightly. Jacob was about to tell his boyfriend that he should pet her as a reward, but the vampire was already doing it. 

“I think they want me to throw it again.” Edward said, doing a rather decent job in pretending that he couldn’t read minds. 

“Yeah, good luck. I’m going to sit down and watch.” Jacob patted his boyfriend’s lower back as he headed over to Sam’s log, asking if he could join him on it. The pack leader allowed it, and together, they watched the bizarre scene of the bundled up vampire playing fetch with a pack of giant werewolves. If Edward had been a human, he would undoubtedly have been tackled to the ground by the eager beasts clambering around him. 

“...He throws like a baseball player.” Sam commented, after they had sat in silence for a while. 

“Yeah, he does.” Jacob agreed, leaning back. “Maybe he just doesn’t know what a soccer ball is?” 

“How can you not know what soccer is…?” Sam searched his face for hints that the teenager was joking. 

“No, really, you’d be surprised by the thing he doesn’t know. Especially considering his age.” 

“How old was he again...” Sam’s sighed, not really intending the comment to be a question. 

Jacob grinned back. “Above legal.” 

Sam huffed. “I just… don’t see why you are doing this. Why you would bring a vampire here, and why you’d want to be… intimate with it.” 

“Him.” Jacob responded. “And it’s not something as crazy as to have meaning or purpose, we’re not Romeo and Juliet or such. I just happened to spend time around him, learnt that I liked his company, and this is what happened when we hung out more. Is it really so darn hard to believe that someone can just like somebody else without thinking about all the details?” He tried very hard to not sound annoyed. Sure, there were lots of questions surrounding dating a vampire, but weren’t there sort of questions about everything when it came to dating? If it didn’t work out, Jacob was certain that they could part as friends and not have it be that big of a deal. 

“But I, uh, he… He won’t age, right? What will you do when you are past fifty and he is still looking like a teenager?” 

“Sam, we don’t know if we will be dating a year from now… Don’t you think it’s kind of weird that you decided that our relationship will have troubles in fifty years?” 

Sam turned a deep red. “Uh… Uhm…” 

Jacob took a deeper breath and patted the other’s back. “I appreciate that you are concerned about me, but I am safe, and I am having fun. Also, Ed is clearly getting along fine with the pack.” _Far better than Bella had been._ “How about you just try and relax about the details? You will worry yourself sick. We will stick to the rules, and we’ll respect the boundaries you’ve set up. If the time would come, our pack is stronger than theirs.” He smiled at him. 

The pack leader sighed and shook his head. “When did you grow up and become so wise? I… suppose you are right. I will try and relax, this isn’t good for my health.” 

“Thanks, Sam.” Jacob leaned in to give him a nuzzle, to which Sam petted his head. 

“Enough flattering now…” He could tell that Sam was smelling happier than he had before they began talking. 

Jacob leaned back on the log once more, focusing on his boyfriend and the pack, as they enjoyed playing fetch with one another. What had once seemed so bizarre and impossible now looked very natural, and Jacob couldn’t help but think that he wouldn’t mind if this was how his everyday continued. It would be nice if the treaty could be more of a sign of friendship rather than just tolerance.


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “It’s alright.” Edward’s gentle voice spoke softly into his ear. “Some other group of friends will agree with me that werewolves are better than vampires.” 
> 
> “That’s not rea-… Hold on.” Jacob pulled back and looked at the vampire, and was met with a smile so big that it didn’t hide the vampire teeth from view. “...I wasn’t even given the chance to vote on my own by you asshats.” He reached up and gently pulled on his boyfriend’s ear. 
> 
> “Oh, then would you vote for vampire or werewolf?” 
> 
> “Vampire.” Jacob grinned as he laced his arms around Edward’s neck. 
> 
> “Clearly, you’re wrong.”

Time passed, and Edward was allowed to spend more time in their territory. The rest of the younger werewolves got along with him, and no longer saw him as a threat, but rather as Jacob’s mate. Edward had gotten Sam’s Messenger, and could now send him messages directly to ask for permission to come over. 

It had become standard for Edward and Jacob to study together, and his boyfriend seemed more than determined to finish school once and for all. Billy Black had been uncomfortable with the vampire at first, but by now, he didn’t quite mind as much. The man spent a lot of time at Charlie Swan’s place, so he wasn’t actually home that much, meaning that he couldn’t exactly argue with Jacob when the latter spoke about Edward making good company. His dad seemed to trust him as well, which felt good. 

Somehow, it became the most natural thing to be around the vampire, and it seemed impossible to Jacob that they hadn’t known each other for all their lives. Or his life. Or… uh, details. 

Still… There was something he had been putting off, and something that weighed on his mind. He had not yet told The Guys™ about him and Edward dating. It wasn’t that he was hiding it… Okay, he was hiding it while at school. It seemed that he was too scared, or… too nervous, to be the strange one, to be the kid from the local native tribe and be gay to boot. He… didn’t think that his friends would reject him for it, but there was always the nagging fear that it could happen. There were so many ‘what ifs’ in his mind, even at the risk of creating smaller discomfort, to make things weird with his friends.

Now, he was sitting by the desk with his computer in front of him, having opened the The Guys™ chat and stared at it. Tyler was talking about a movie he had just watched, and Jacob wondered if it was worth interrupting or if he should wait until the other had finished telling about how fake the shark in the movie had looked. 

Tylerschmyler: So now you know 

Tylerschmyler: When in doubt the shark will explode upon poked

Tylerschmyler: It sounds like a sexual innuendo

Tylerschmyler: Sup jake why u creepin?

Jake the Dog: Not creeping, just busy reading about your shark knowledge

The Snack: Hi, Jake, it's been a while since you joined the chat. I hope you haven’t been having a rough time. 

Carl the Llama: i thought you said not to talk about the crazy chick

The Snack: VARL

The Snack: *CARL 

Jake the Dog: It’s cool, that’s not really what I wanted to talk about. 

Carl the Llama: oh good

Carl the Llama: whats up

The Snack: Yeah, what’s up? 

Tylerschmyler: Whats on your heart, bro? 

Tylerschmyler: Hi, Ed, welcome you too

Edward Cullen: Hello, @Tylerschmyler. Thank you for your welcome. 

Jake the Dog: So anyway

Jake the Dog: I was trying to say

Jake the Dog: Okay, so

Jake the Dog: I wanted to let you

Jake the Dog: That me and Edward are dating now. 

Edward Cullen: Yes, we are. It is very nice, I have not dated a man before. 

Jake the Dog: Uh, I guess I haven’t either

Tylerschmyler: LMFAO 

Edward Cullen: What? 

Jake the Dog: Uh… 

Tylerschmyler: YOU GUYS NEED TO READ THE CHAT MORE OFTEN

Carl the Llama: NO WAY THERE CAN ONLY BE ONE GAY COUPLE IN A FRIENDGROUP

Carl the Llama: THIS GROUP ALREADY HAS A GAY COUPLE 

The Snack: JESUS! Guys, you are not making any sense… 

Carl the Llama: jake ill fight you for alpha gay couple 

The Snack: What they are trying to say is that me and Carl are dating too, since a few weeks back 

Edward Cullen: Congratulations. I’m very happy for you two. 

The Snack: Thank you

Carl the Llama: lmfao 

Carl the Llama: we are the alpha gays in this friend group

Carl the Llama: youll have to be the beta gays

Edward Cullen: I’m afraid I don’t understand what you are saying @Carl the Llama 

Tylerschmyler: Hes saying that they were first

Tylerschmyler: Also im becoming the only straight guy in this group 

Tylerschmyler: @Finn the Human you wanna date and become the omega gaycouple lol 

Finn the Human: If I wasn’t Ace, I would have considered it 

Tylerschmyler: Lol, thanks bro 

-Carl the Llama changed Edward Cullen’s nickname to Lady Rainicorn- 

Lady Rainicorn: Is this a reference to something? 

Carl the Llama: watch adventure time

Lady Rainicorn: I see, thank you. 

-Tylerschmyler changed the group name to The Gays™ + Tyler- 

Finn the Human: Ace isn’t exactly gay 

Tylerschmyler: Shh, you’re at least lgbtq+ 

Tylerschmyler: Dont ruin my joke

Finn the Human: Fair 

Tylerschmyler: Also did Jake die 

Lady Rainicorn: He is very relieved, he was very scared to tell you guys about us dating.

The Snack: Oh Jake, only assholes don’t accept their friend's sexuality. We’d never freeze you out just because you like guys better than girls

Tylerschmyler: Yeah, f*ck that kind of non tolerance 

Carl the Llama: life sucks enough without your friends being insecure pricks 

Finn the Human: We’re all happy for you, we’re happy you told us rather than worry about it alone. 

Carl the Llama: yeah well bully ty for being the token straight 

Tylerschmyler: Or you just find me a real life Orlando Bloom and I’ll be right there with you 

Tylerschmyler: Id also gladly accept Tom Cruise as he looked in that vampire movie 

Tylerschmyler: I guess i want my men with long hair

Carl the Llama: too bad jake cut his hair 

Tylerschmyler: Real shame

Tylerschmyler: Would tots have been one of you gays now if jake had only had long hair still 

Lady Rainicorn: I like his short hair. It’s very pleasant to run my fingers through it like this. 

Tylerschmyler: Gay

Carl the Llama: gay 

Finn the Human: Gay

The Snack: Homosexual 

Jake the Dog: I was going to be like emotional and thank you asshats but I changed my mind lol 

Lady Rainicorn: I also think Lestat is very appealing. 

Tylerschmyler: Join me in vampire sexual ed 

Lady Rainicorn: Jacob likes vampires too. 

Jake the Dog: You little shit

Lady Rainicorn: I think I like werewolves more. 

Lady Rainicorn: :) 

The Snack: I think I like vampires more, I’ll join you, Ty. 

Tylerschmyler: Noice. @Finn the Human

Finn the Human: Definitely vampires 

Carl the Llama: werewolves 

Tylerschmyler: Vampires: 3 

Tylerschmyler: Werewolves: 2 

Tylerschmyler: Bloodsuckers win 

The Snack: Hooray. 

Lady Rainicorn: Haha. 

Jake the Dog: This is not how I expected this to go… 

Tylerschmyler: Thats what happens when you try to be serious around The Gays™ 

Jake the Dog: Thanks guys

Jake the Dog: *Gays 

Carl the Llama: welc 

The Snack: <3 

Tylerschmyler: Ey

Finn the Human: No problem 

Lady Rainicorn: :) 

Jacob turned the chair around and walked over to Edward, who was sitting on the bed with his laptop. Jacob put the laptop away and replaced it with himself, hugging the vampire with both arms and legs, while hiding against his shoulder. He could feel himself trembling slightly with nervousness still, despite it all having gone far better than he dared dreaming of. 

Edward stroke over his back, the small body had no problems whatsoever to have a much heavier person on top of it. Had it been somebody else, Jacob would have been self conscious about crushing them, but with Edward, that wasn’t really a problem. 

“It’s alright.” Edward’s gentle voice spoke softly into his ear. “Some other group of friends will agree with me that werewolves are better than vampires.” 

“That’s not rea-… Hold on.” Jacob pulled back and looked at the vampire, and was met with a smile so big that it didn’t hide the vampire teeth from view. “...I wasn’t even given the chance to vote on my own by you asshats.” He reached up and gently pulled on his boyfriend’s ear. 

“Oh, then would you vote for vampire or werewolf?” 

“Vampire.” Jacob grinned as he laced his arms around Edward’s neck. 

“Clearly, you’re wrong.” Edward moved his own arms around Jacob’s back, hugging him closer. The teenager could feel his boyfriend’s semi hard member push against his own. “Werewolves make far better lovers. I’m old enough to know.” 

“Bold of you to say when you haven’t actually been fucked by one.” Jacob pushed his nose against his boyfriend’s cheek. 

“You’re right.” Edward hugged him closer. “That really should be mended. Will your father be home today?” 

The werewolf shook his head. “Nah, we have all the time in the world.” 

“Then I will be able to offer my professional opinion about just how good lovers werewolves are by the end of today?” Edward’s cold fingers slid under his shirt, making Jacob shudder. 

“Probably.” 

He was gifted another big, toothed, and relaxed smile. “Where were you keeping that lube and condoms again?”


	16. Chapter 16

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Edward’s car slid smoothly into its parking space, the kind of smoothly which only came with having droven a car for many years. Jacob unbuckled his belt, and stepped out of the car. They were talking about something, but their discussion came to a very sudden halt. There was an unfamiliar yet very familiar scent in the air. The two of them looked at one another, with Edward not managing to hide his emotions at all. He looked scared, hurt and frightened, and that expression was one which Jacob never, ever wanted to see on his boyfriend again, if he could help avoiding it.
> 
> “It… but she should be with… her father…?” Edward stumbled out a sentence. 
> 
> “...She should, but I can feel her scent too.” 
> 
> Bella’s scent. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: Serious confrontations about harmful behaviours and toxic relationships.

It had begun as a rather crazy idea. Jacob hadn’t exactly meant to actually formulate it in his thoughts, but he had nonetheless accidentally done it, and Edward had heard it. The crazy idea had begun with a very simple thought: barbecue. 

There had to be some way for the werewolves and the Cullens to get along. Edward was already bridging the gap, and he was becoming a friend to the tribe, through means of interacting with them. The werewolves were no longer aggressive or suspicious of him, and the parents of the tribe allowed their children to speak to the vampire. 

Edward wasn’t loved by everyone, but he was tolerated by everyone, and had even been given some handmade presents from people whose children and grandchildren had grown tired of receiving more useless trinkets. Edward had been wearing every single bracelet he had been given since the day it was given to him, and he had now reached a crowded seven on one arm and three on the other. Jacob could tell how proud he was to have received the gifts. 

Jacob had found himself pondering ways to make the vampires and werewolves interact more, and to bridge their differences. Sure, he had seen the Cullens on a few more occasions, and didn’t exactly fear entering the household, but just him wasn’t really enough. The fact that he was getting along more and more with the vampires wasn’t enough. It would probably be good for everyone to interact, but even more so, it was important for the hamsters to get out of the house, and find themselves in an environment where they didn’t have to pretend to be human. Jacob recalled how much fun Carlisle had when cooking, and how he had been able to obtain such quality meat. The vampire had more than enough money to be able to host a whole party, compared to most people. Heck, he could probably host a whole barbecue. The promise of nice meat was most likely more than enough for the werewolves to accept the invitation… 

The werewolf realized that his boyfriend was looking at him, which led to the subsequent realization that he had heard him. To his great surprise, Edward slowly nodded. 

“That doesn’t sound like a bad idea. There are many campfires in the forest, and if people bring some of their own food as well, I’m sure we could have a barbecue on neutral territory. With all the werewolves being allowed to come, they aren’t as likely to fear an attack from my family.” 

“The problem is having anyone come at all if we tried to do such a thing.” Jacob crossed his arms over his chest, tapping his arm with his finger as he considered the idea. “My pack would probably come, based on knowing you, but the mood would probably be rather tense…” 

“That is true. Dad would be happy to arrange the whole thing, but I’m not sure how excited the rest of them would be. I wouldn’t want this to become another one of Carlisle deciding for all of us, I would want them to come of their own accord.” 

“Do you really think it could be done… As in, anyone would actually come and want to come? I’m rather nervous everyone would just reject the idea.” 

“I think it is worth a try nonetheless.” Edward moved over to sit next to him on the bed, giving him a small, reassuring smile. 

Jacob smiled back. “Hey, when did you become so… reliable and forward?” 

“I suppose I might have changed a little after breaking out of my hamster cage.” Edward leaned his head to the side as he spoke, smiling softly still. 

The two of them continued to discuss how to get the barbecue together, and what problems might rise upon trying to make the event happen. Jacob had gotten to know the Cullens rather well during his time dating Edward, he got along great with Emmett, and the two of them had had quite a few wrestling matches together. Emmett won most of the time, but the werewolf had been able to defeat him a few times in return. They had fun, and had even watched some movies together. 

Jasper was also surprisingly easy to get along with. He had expected the chihuahua to be more distant, and while he wasn’t overly friendly, he wasn’t hard to get along with. He smelled a lot like an older herding dog, one who would just lay on the couch and watch over the pack. When Jasper did talk, he was rather interesting, and in many ways, he felt like he had the most experience out of the hamsters. Apparently the hamster was very well versed in both the study of philosophy and psychology. Jasper was rather active in terms of self-study, which Jacob very much approved of. He had joined Jacob and Edward in watching movies sometimes, but not nearly as much as Emmett. It seemed that he still got twitchy and stressed from being around a potential meal, and preferred to keep his distance out of consideration for the werewolf’s comfort. 

Another noteworthy change was that Jasper did no longer address Carlisle as his father, nor Esme as his mother, not that anyone said it out loud too often aside from Emmett. When Jacob had asked his boyfriend about it, Edward had explained that Jacob’s criticism towards the Cullen family, and discussions about it, had led to the hamster not anymore being willing to pretend to be a child, or Carlisle’s child. There was a difference as most of the others were turned by Carlisle or someone within the family, whereas Jasper was not only older than most of them, but had lived a life elsewhere as a soldier, and then had been turned to live yet another life as a vampire before he even came in contact with the Cullens. It hadn’t become a drama, really, but Jasper clearly very strongly agreed with Jacob on all points of why the play pretend family wasn’t good for them, and it seemed the hamsters had discussed such matters amongst themselves in Jacob’s absence. 

In the end, Jasper had accepted that he wasn’t one of the Cullens, but rather staying with them, as they were people dear to him, and it seemed to have become quite the relief for him. He was still a part of the covenant though. It seemed said hamster had also talked to his not-anymore-pretend-siblings about the idea of going further than a hike to do something, just visit somewhere, maybe take Alice to see something she would enjoy. 

Rosalie had not enjoyed Jacob’s company a lot in the beginning, but his closeness to her boyfriend-or-husband seemed to calm her and make her trust him more. They had chatted a little, and the tension between them had ebbed out into something akin to friendship. They didn’t have a lot to talk about, but they could talk about the weather and simple things like that. The last time she had compared him to Bella, Jacob had stared her straight in the eyes and responded that his bra size was bigger than the human’s. That had shocked the room into silence, and just as Jacob was beginning to think that he might have taken it too far, Edward had begun laughing. After that, Jacob was never compared to Bella again. 

Alice was… an adventure to get along with. Jacob felt like she was a cat, and he was a dog. She tried to figure out ways of behaving like him, and to speak like a normal person, but no matter what she did, it always came out slightly wrong. It seemed very much like the old girl had forgotten how to speak for the conversation’s sake, and was unable to talk without revealing things which she shouldn’t really reveal. They weren’t big things, but nonetheless, it was as if she moved on to a part of a conversation which nobody else could follow. Jacob noticed her becoming slightly depressed whenever he was around, until they figured out that she could talk about books she had read. From that point on, their conversations would consist of short book reports, and that seemed to cheer the old girl right up. 

Jacob felt some manner of distance to the women of the Cullen family, even if he overall didn’t have a lot of contact with Esme Cullen. It was hard to pin down, but upon voicing his concerns to Edward, the hamster had discussed the ideas of larger bridges and differences between men and women back in their days. He had explained that the two female vampires sometimes struggled to unlearn the idea that they were different from men, and therefore didn’t have the same right to speak their mind or adress men however they wanted. Further, Edward had admitted that it had been easier for Jasper than it had been for himself to unlearn that the ideas of what a man was supposed to be and do, compared to the duties which ‘should’ belong to women. Emmett had been the quickest to adapt to the idea, and the one who behaved the least like he was restricted by any kind of presumed ideas of how one was supposed to behave towards a certain type of person. 

Edward had further explained that Jasper had lived in a world where his creator was female, and could therefore not deny her powers and influence, while Edward himself had grown up with Carlisle, who had been a male role model. Even if Carlisle didn’t believe men to be superior to women, the vampire still had very fixed ideas about the man’s role in the household, which was probably one of the reasons why he insisted so firmly to uphold the family ideals while they were clearly not helping anyone in his family. Carlisle did not do what he did based on an underlying desire to oppress anyone, but he had a traditionalist mind, and struggled with breaking the illusions he had imposed on himself and others. 

Jacob had found that he was more often than not objecting to Carlisle’s ideas and behaviors. They never had any outright fights, and the vampire had come to value his comments and judgement, but there were many times where the werewolf called the man out on his more foolish actions. They had gotten to the point where Jacob had managed to convince the vampire that nobody believed him to be twentythree, considering all his accomplishments and degrees. They had also talked about the fact that most people assumed the vampire to have a face mostly consisting of plastic surgery, and just went along with his age claim as to not wake some manner of deep trauma. Jacob had managed to pry those details out of Edward to use as ammunition for reasons as to why Carlisle should stop pretending to be so young, as it made his adoptive family look more like a cult than a real family. 

The vampire had found it hard to wrap his mind around it at first, until Jacob and Edward managed to make him recall times when his judgement was ignored based on being ‘too young.’ The discussion spurred a lot of memories, and Carlisle came to the conclusion that he would make sure to present himself as older from that day on. He was also shocked to realize that his pretend family who were all dating one another was apparently very strange to normal people, but as he couldn’t do much about that now, he was stuck with the knowledge as to why he was looked at with such uncertainty every time he talked about his children. 

It was clear that Jacob was making a big difference to the family, not just Edward. It hadn’t been quick, and Jacob hadn’t really noticed it at first, but people around them noted that Edward seemed happier, and easier to approach. Jacob himself came to realize then that the hamster wasn’t acting as depressed as he had when they first met, which made him immensely proud to think about. The hamster himself noted that the teachers were suddenly thinking very happy thoughts around him, being proud over him, as they judged that Edward finally had the spark to finish school. The hamster had also managed to address his reading difficulties with the school, and had been given some extra help, in that his exercises were printed out on paper with a different font to make it easier for him to read. 

All in all, a lot of things seemed to be changing for the better in a lot of different areas, and Jacob felt more than overwhelmed whenever Edward mentioned how much he was helping the Cullen family. He was happy that he was helping, but it felt sort of weird to get that much credit; even if he knew that he was technically the rock to set the avalanche going, he didn’t feel like much more than that. 

The two boyfriends reached the conclusion that they should ask the Cullen family if they were willing to have a barbecue in the first place. Before they started to try and convince the werewolves that the barbecue was a good idea it was probably best to establish how many vampires were going to participate. They were certain that Carlisle and Emmett would want to join, but the rest were question marks. Rather than to send messages asking about it, the two agreed that they should head over to the Cullen’s house and ask them in person. That way, they could also help plan and come with suggestions. Carlisle wasn’t expected to be home until later that evening, but they would start with what they had. It might also be better to hear what the others had to say before Carlisle came back. He was still the leader of the covenant after all, and his opinion might cause the others to feel obliged to participate. The family might be more independent, but Carlisle still had power over them, even if the vampire in question didn’t quite seem to realize it himself in most cases. 

Edward’s car slid smoothly into its parking space, the kind of smoothly which only came with having driven a car for many years. Jacob unbuckled his seatbelt, and stepped out of the car. They were talking about something, but their discussion came to a very sudden halt. There was an unfamiliar yet very familiar scent in the air. The two of them looked at one another, with Edward not managing to hide his emotions at all. He looked scared, hurt and frightened, and that expression was one which Jacob never, ever wanted to see on his boyfriend again, if he could help avoiding it.

“It… but she should be with… her father…?” Edward stumbled out a sentence. 

“...She should, but I can feel her scent too.” 

Bella’s scent. 

“I… can’t see her car though.” The hamster looked around, as if the truck would magically appear if he simply looked hard enough. 

“She might have parked it somewhere else, or she has already left…” Jacob was looking around as well, searching for signs of footsteps or car tracks. 

Edward was staring up at the house, looking at it as if it was a nest of hornets, which might explode upon poked. He still had that look on his face, that look which made Jacob want to hide him in his arms and keep him safe from the world. Instead, he grabbed his hand, squeezing it gently. 

“Ed, I’m here for you. She can’t hurt you, if she is here, someone else should be able to make her leave.” 

Edward’s hand squeezed his back, and he licked his own lips. “...I think… if she is here… I have to talk to her. This behavior has gone on for long enough and… this is the last straw. It… is okay, I… I have you so… I will be fine.” 

Jacob smiled at him, he knew that Edward wanted to believe in his own words, but he was still worried about him. Bella’s frankly abusive behaviors had clearly left traces on him. So much that she was hurting him, to the very day. Still, they didn’t know if Bella was there at all. Together, and hand in hand, they walked towards the house. 

At the door, they were met by a very agitated Rosalie, who looked like she was waiting for someone. Judging by her looking less than pleased upon them entering, she was not expecting them. She and Edward looked at one another, and all three present knew then that Bella was in the house. As they exchanged looks, Jacob heard the faint sound of Alice's voice coming from the living room. She was clearly trying to distract someone by talking to them. Jacob assumed that Jasper was with her and Bella, using his vampire powers to calm the young woman down. By then, he knew Jasper well enough to know that he was very reliable, no matter what the vampire thought of himself. 

“We called Carlisle.” Rosalie said, in a subtle tone of voice. “We were hoping he could deal with her and send her home without you guys running into her.” She lowered her voice further, glancing back at the door to the living room. “She smells sick. It’s disgusting.” 

“Is that Edward?” 

Jacob could feel his boyfriend tense up, grabbing his hand as if it was the only thing in the world which he could cling to. Noises began coming from the living room, and he heard Alice tell Bella to sit back down again. 

“Hey, hey, no leaving the living room.” Emmett’s kind voice rose up, a lot closer to them, leading Jacob to believe that the vampire had positioned himself as a door guard. 

“I just need to talk to him… No, I just need to see him…” Bella clearly wasn’t letting herself be stopped. Her voice was closer now, and Edward smelled frightened, and much to Jacob’s distress, guilty even. There were things he had been guilty of back when the two had been dating, but currently this situation was about Bella continuously hurting him, and she was hurting him so much that merely meeting with her was tearing him apart. While reality was harsh and cruel, ideally, nobody should have to feel that frightened or scared and hurt by someone. 

Jacob took a deep breath and squeezed Edward's hand, before he carefully let go of it and moved into the living room, giving Emmett a pat on the back to tell him that he was coming. It was… hard to look at Bella, but he did, and he tried to not show her how uncomfortable he was with facing her. 

She had stopped in mid motion, she was standing up while clearly trying to push past Alice. Jasper was reaching out towards her, but he distinctively didn’t want to touch her, so he was sort of awkwardly standing behind her. Bella herself looked… sick. There was no joy in her eyes, and her already thin frame now seemed an effect of illness, rather than her natural body type. Her eyes were sunken, further adding to her sickness. The skin he could see looked dried and pale, even if it likely wouldn’t be as noticeable to humans, and the hair was unkempt, even if it wasn’t exactly dirty. Her eyes met his, and the weak, desperate look in them changed to surprise, then realization, before settling on betrayal. 

“Why are you… here? Where is Edward?” She sounded accusing and hurt, and Jacob felt the impulse to apologize, but he managed to bite it back. He had nothing to apologize to her for. 

“I believe I have every right to visit my boyfriend’s house.” He crossed his arms over his chest, trying not to appear defensive or triumphant. Just factual. “What are you doing here? Your father must be really worried, do they know that you are here?” He accidentally referred to both hers and his father without thinking about it. 

Something very uncomfortable followed, something so unreal and uncomfortable that it was hard to to ever fathom until it happened. Jacob saw something in Bella’s eyes, and felt it on her scent. He experienced how his childhood friend, and former crush, looked upon him, and how he in more or less an instant stopped being a person. He was no longer Jacob Black in her eyes, he was a threat. An enemy. A hindrance and an obstacle. To see himself reduced to something utterly negative in the eyes of a person who had previously meant so much to him hurt. It hurt a lot. It also further convinced him that she had no concept of that people were living beings, in the first place, and that Edward was a person, rather than her object of attraction; sick or not, she was acting beyond selfish. They had been close once, long ago, and normally, it should account for something, but now, now he was absolutely nothing to her, and it had all happened in an instant. 

“It doesn’t matter.” Bella said, and next to her, both Alice and Jasper looked worried and uncomfortable respectively. “I have decided that I will become a vampire, and join the Olympic covenant.” 

Complete silence followed her words, until there was a noise by the door, and Carlisle Cullen appeared in the doorway to the living room. He looked over the situation, clearly having passed Edward and Rosalie on the way there. His eyes rested on Bella. 

“I came as fast as I could. Ms Swan, I will take you back to your home now, I’m certain that your father is very worried.” He began walking towards her, but Bella stepped back. 

“My dad won’t have anything to do with me anymore!” Her voice came out much louder than anyone was prepared for, causing them all to halt in their respective movements. Bella, almost triumphantly, continued “I have decided that I will become a vampire. That’s the only solution to my situation.” 

“Nonsense, that will not happen.” Jasper was the one to speak up first, and like a snake, Bella turned to him. 

“That’s not for you to decide. I demand a vote. From everyone in the family. I want to join the covenant.” Jacob was overcome with the realization of how childish she sounded. Like a small child, she was screaming and acting out how she wanted something, with no consideration for whether it was possible, or if the people around her were willing to give it to her. Like a child, she was screaming and making a ruckus hoping to get what she wanted, no matter the consequences. In that instant, it was hard to remember he had ever been crushing on her, or found her attractive. He still felt a connection to her, but it was incredibly difficult to watch her act so unreasonably. He could only hope that she was in some sort of state of distress, and that this was not how she would handle matters normally.

“I will not stop until you all agree to vote on the matter.” Her eyes moved past Carlisle, past Emmett, towards the doorway where Edward had not stepped into the living room. 

“Bella…” Jacob tried to speak to her, but she looked upon him with such distaste that the words got stuck in his throat. He wanted to act, he wanted to reason with her, or well, scold her even. There were so many things he wanted to say with all the mess she was causing, but right there, his words were stuck. 

“This is not for you to speak up about. You’re not a vampire, you have no say in this.” 

“Ms Swan…” Carlisle tried again, speaking in his most father like voice, but he was interrupted as well. 

“Actually, I think that is a great idea.” Rosalie had been the one to speak first, now standing in the doorway in front of her husband-and-boyfriend. “Let us indeed have a vote.” She walked forward, until she joined her not-father’s side. “Everyone in the Olympic covenant will vote on this matter.” 

Slowly, Alice nodded. “I think that might… be a good idea.” 

“Edward needs to vote too!” Once again, Bella’s demands sounded so very childish to Jacob, and he shifted uncomfortably as he glanced towards the doorway. 

Edward slowly walked inside the room, walking over to stand by Carlisle and Jacob. He didn’t look at Bella, but glanced at her instead, before glancing at Rosalie. Jacob had never wanted to touch him more. Despite the collected, slightly uncomfortable look on his face, Jacob could tell that his boyfriend was close to tears. The werewolf glanced at the young woman who was the cause of the hamster’s woes, and he saw an almost maniac expression in her eyes. She looked like a starving beast who was about to attack a young doe. 

“Well, with everyone gathered” Rosalie began “those of us in the Olympic covenant who vote for Bella Swan to join, and be made a vampire, raise your hands.” 

Alice looked like she might raise her hand, but then she halted her movement, seemed to think, before she lowered her arm to the side again. Other than that movement, nobody raised their hand. 

“Ms Swan.” Carlisle stared down at her, his usual relaxed face now looking far more determined than Jacob had ever seen him. “In 1936, me and my family established a treaty with the local tribe. Since then, I have spent years and years of my life honoring this treaty. With Jacob Black, a member of the tribe as my witness, I tell you that the treaty states that the Olympic covenant shall not drink blood from any human living in this area. Further, we are vowed to never change a human into a vampire by the power of that treaty.” He turned towards Jacob. “As a representative for the tribe, do you, Jacob Black, witness that my words about the treaty are true?” 

Jacob felt slightly overwhelmed as he answered in the affirmative. 

“With that being said, Esme, Emmet, Edward, Rosalie, you were all present at the time the treaty was agreed upon, do you witness my words to be true?” 

“I do.” Esme agreed. 

“Yes.” Emmet agreed. 

Edward nodded. 

“Yes, I witness them to be true.” Rosalie agreed as well. 

Carlisle turned back to Bella, who stared at him like a child who was not allowed to have what she wanted. She looked in between furious and close to crying. Jacob suspected that her not crying or acting out worse yet might have something to do with Jasper, staring at her from where he was standing. 

“What you are asking us,” Carlisle spoke, staring at her with his unblinking, golden eyes, “is to ruin a close to eighty year old treaty, which we have been loyally following for all these years. You are demanding that I undo a lifetime’s work for the sake of a more or less minor, who cannot possibly know what she wants with her life, and who has consistently been treating my son like an object she can bully into owning by threatening her own safety. I shall never welcome or reward such a person into becoming part of my family.” His words were clearly final, he had nothing more to say. Jacob was amazed how Bella was able to stand, she was hanging her head, biting her lower lip in defiance. 

“In other words, nobody here wants you.” Rosalie translated, placing her hands on her hips. Jacob couldn’t help but to think those words were, well, not untrue or unnecessary, but certainly not the kind which would calm Bella, he couldn’t help fearing that Rosalie’s bluntness would make the situation worse. Yet, he had to acknowledge that the woman had the right to speak up, Bella had placed them all in such an uncomfortable scenario, hurt and endangered them in the past; Rosalie had the right to speak, even when Bella wasn’t in a state prepared to hear such things. 

Her words seemed to waken Bella, and she lifted her head, staring straight at Edward. “But I want _you_.” 

The way she said those words made Jacob feel disgusted. Once again, she acted like a spoiled child who had the right to something just because she wanted it. She didn’t say she cared for Edward, she wasn’t saying that she loved him; she was saying that she wanted him, like an object which could be desired to possess. This time, Jacob very nearly spoke up to scold her, but he was cut off, to everyone’s surprise. 

“...And what about what I want?” 

The whole room fell silent as Edward had finally spoken up, only now looking at the woman who had become so uncomfortably obsessed with him. Everyone was staring at him, nobody had expected him to speak up, and Jacob came to recall that his boyfriend had an incredibly passive nature. Which was probably one of the reasons as to why Bella’s forceful behavior had affected him so much and so badly. 

“You don’t want me.” Edward continued. “You want a certain image of a life which you have pushed onto me. You want a fantasy, and you have made me into something I am not, for the sake of fitting your fantasy. I am not what you want me to be, and life as a vampire is not what you imagine it to be. If we had a choice, all of us here present would stop being one, and go back to a normal life, but we can’t, no matter how much we want to. In the world you have built up for yourself, you have forgotten that I am a person, with my own will and interests. You have reduced me to not a person, but an object of fantasy. I’m not what you want me to be.” 

Bella looked like she was about to burst out in something, she smelled upset, she smelled of denial to the level of nearly brimming over. Yet, as she felt as if she was going to burst, the feeling was quickly reduced again, and Jacob very much expected Jasper to be once more responsible for that change, and Edward continued speaking. 

“I wish that I could have talked this all out with you, I wish there was a solution which could make us both happy, but your actions and behavior has made it very clear that it will not happen. I wanted to talk this out with you, I didn’t want to completely cut you off, but I came to realize that I had nothing to gain from speaking this out with you. You would have forced me into a solution which I would not be comfortable with, and which I might not want in the first place. Talking with you would have trapped me in a solution designed to give you what you want, not something which we would both want. Bella, the truth is that you cannot make me happy, and I cannot give you the fantasy you want. If I believed there was any way to make you accept this, I would have talked to you, but your behavior since has made me even more adamant to not speak with you again, as it would become a reward for your self-destructive behaviors. What you have done has not been alright, and will not result in getting what you want.” 

It was impossible to really detect what Bella was feeling right then, the smell was foul and a huge cluster of many different things. It must be hard for Jasper to hold her back, he smelled and looked very strained as it was.

“I-... I didn’t do that-... I-... I’m hurting… I miss you… I’m not trying to hurt you,” she mumbled out; it sounded barely coherent, and Jacob very much doubted that she even understood half of what he was saying to begin with, given how heavily she smelled like she was refusing and denying everything he was saying. She was so threatened, so very defensive. “I wouldn’t have if I knew you hated me so much!” 

What. What even. It was hard to understand how that logic even worked, suddenly she smelled accusing, as if she was the one being hurt by Edward; was she really so deep into her own mess and hurt that she would ignore all of which she was doing, and would do, to hurt Edward, because hearing the truth about it hurt her? 

“Do you think that this is about you being evil? It’s not anything as one sided as that; I don’t hate you. The truth is that your behavior is terribly frightening… To think that you would actively try and hurt yourself for the sake of me paying attention to you… It’s wrong. If you think that I don’t care about what you are doing, I do, and it terrifies me. All of this… is so very frightening. I feel responsible and guilty, and I have been constantly wondering what your friends and family would do to me if you actually took your life…” He trailed off, for once completely baring his emotions, his fear, and his regret. “In doing what you have done, I am convinced that I made the right choice in staying away, as you would have tricked me into staying with you through means of guilt tripping and threats.” 

“I wished that there had been another solution than cutting you off.” Edward continued. “Doing so has not been easy, and not fun. I catch myself thinking of what I would have said to you if I could, but I know that you will never listen to me, and nothing but your exact fantasy will satisfy your delusion.”

He was clearly still not reaching all the way, she was still clearly refusing to listen, but at least she was silent again. 

“Bella… you’re sick, you need medical help. I will never become yours, and if you keep on pushing, you will only hurt the people around you. Please, let father take you back to your home, and then stop trying to become part of my family. As Rosalie said, nobody here thinks you are good for me, and we want you to go back home and forget your fantasy. Your happiness cannot come at the cost of my pain. If you understand nothing else, then understand that.” 

Edward stopped for a few seconds, and then continued on “this has nothing to do with Jacob or my feelings for him. I won’t compare you in any way, but know that my current feelings towards you, that of betrayal, hurt and wanting to distance myself for good, have all been brought about by your own behavior; it did not start out that way.” 

Jacob was beyond impressed-... For a moment, he thought back to the guilty and scared vampire in the small cabin out in the woods, who clearly blamed himself for everything, and thought himself responsible for everything his ex was doing to him and otherwise. No matter what Bella was thinking about it, no matter what she did, Jacob felt immense victory in knowing that Edward finally understood all of it, himself. Admitting to anything of what Edward had experienced and what he was feeling, would have to come hand in hand with admitting all the wrongs Bella had committed in hurting him, and in the way she treated him, and Bella just seemed far too keen on blaming anything else but herself. Jacob had seen her look at him for a moment again, when Edward finished his speech, and she was still looking at him like he was no longer a person. 

“Jacob?” Carlisle was suddenly standing next to him, giving him a close to fatherly smile, as Jasper put his hand on Bella’s shoulder, making her sit down on the couch. As Carlisle continued to speak to him, the young woman began to sob. The werewolf suspected that the crying was only kept to sobbing thanks to the work of Jasper. 

“Your father is Charlie Swan’s old friend and partner, is he not? You wouldn’t happen to have Mr. Swan’s number, do you?” Carlisle continued, holding his hand out for Jacob’s phone. 

“...Oh, no.” Jacob reached for said phone, and unlocked it to find that his father had tried to reach him. The werewolf didn’t have any doubts that he had called about Bella’s most probable disappearance. He handed the phone to Carlisle, having opened his phonebook at D for ‘dad.’ “But dad should be with him, so just call and ask for him. Tell him I let you borrow my phone, so that he doesn’t worry.” 

The old vampire hit the call button, and Jacob heard the tone as he put it to his ear. “Hello, Mr. Black? This is Carlisle Cullen, your son allowed me to use his phone. Do you have Mr. Swan present? His daughter has found her way to my house and… yes, she seems to be unharmed. She is however upset, may I speak to Mr. Swa… Hello, Mr. Swan, this is Carlisle Cullen. I’m calling about your daughter…” As Carlisle stepped to the side and began speaking with Billy and later Charlie, Jacob stepped over to Edward and grabbed his hand, pulling him along with him. 

Together, they exited the living room, and headed towards the upper floor where Jacob knew Edward’s room to be. He felt Edward shaking all the way to the room. The werewolf pushed the door open, and he had no sooner than closed it before Edward was clinging to his neck, pushing him back against the door as he broke down crying against his chest. Jacob had expected the whole ordeal to be hard on the other, but he was still not fully prepared for the feelings it invoked in his chest to see the hamster break down crying like this. He was rather unsteady himself, and emotionally exhausted, but it was nothing compared to his boyfriend. 

“It’s okay.” Jacob gently kissed his head, and then bent down and picked the smaller man up, easily bringing him over to the bed and sat down with him in his lap, now much more comfortably resting with his back against the wall. 

As Edward cried, Jacob held him, gently stroking over his back and head. He gave him soft kisses, and spoke to him in his softest voice, trying to make sure that the other felt comfortable and safe. He couldn’t stop thinking of how proud he was over the other, and how good Edward had been at formulating himself despite all the stress which he had been put under. 

Gently, he placed a kiss on the other’s forehead, and thought with all his heart that he loved him. Edward, in return, hiccuped and hugged him tighter. He made a valiant attempt to speak through his tears, and managed to press out the words: 

“Ah ueh uhh tooh.” 

_I love you too._

They sat like that together, close and hugging, listening as Carlisle’s car drove off with Bella inside of it. That would be the last contact either of them would have with her directly, but Jacob would come to chat with her in the future. 

They wouldn’t know all the details until much, much later, but it became decided that Bella should go back to her mother’s house, as she could get help in Phoenix from a hospital which was equipped to handle cases such as hers. It would take a long time, as her problems, as well as her very unrealistic view of the world, were not easily overcome, but she finally managed to recover from them. The last contact Jacob would have with her was her apologizing to him, and saying that she was currently retaking a lot of classes to finish her education. Bella seemed to understand that rather than apologizing to Edward, he deserved being left alone to recover, as well, because she didn’t even ask for the opportunity. She would also tell him that she was going on a date with another woman the upcoming weekend, and she looked forward to it. She wouldn’t mention Edward or the Cullens once, and Jacob would count that as a victory and as her overcoming her unhealthy obsession with them. Not that he would be able to know for sure, but it was clearly a sign to things turning for the better. Despite his connections to her from the past, it would truly become clear that it was better for everyone involved to move on in life, and not keep contact. Jacob truly hoped that she would be happy. 


	17. Chapter 17

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Billy, who had gone with them to shop, told Jacob that Carlisle was impossible, and continuously argued that more food was better than less, and that the members of the tribe could always bring the leftovers home to eat the next day. It was, Billy had said, like the opposite of shopping with a fussy mother, where the whole ‘we have that at home’ had been replaced with ‘grab three just to make sure.’ 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last chapter, here we go.
> 
> Sorry for the long time it has taken, and only sporadically answering comments, we haven't had the time to work on fanfiction recently. 
> 
> Co-written by Teddy and Nathan  
> Co-edited by Teddy and Nathan

Carlisle Cullen didn’t do things half heartedly. After having heard the idea of a barbecue, he had been so thrilled with said idea that he had immediately begun planning what to buy and rent for the occasion. Neither Edward nor Jacob managed to convince him that an entirely new, huge grill wasn’t actually necessary, he had decided that this party absolutely needed one, and he came back from the store with a beast of a grill which might have been fitting for a family of sixteen. Nobody dared asking how much the thing had cost, but everyone knew that Carlisle could afford it. However, when he proceeded to try and look into buying party tents, Jasper managed to stop him by finding a website which rented out the same kind of tents for a much lower price. It fell on the same person to explain to Carlisle that too much flaunting of money tended to make people insecure and uncomfortable. It seemed that Jasper had managed to be convincing enough. 

Buying the food for the barbecue had been surprisingly easy. After Carlisle had helped Bella home, he had become far more accepted by Charlie and Billy. Not only had he driven her home, but with his extensive medical knowledge and contacts, he had been able to offer help with who to contact to actually help the young woman, after it was decided that she would move back to her mother’s house. Nobody had asked for his help, but it was very clear that Charlie was relieved to have professional help. 

After the change in attitude towards the vampire, Jacob had asked his dad for help in getting the werewolves to agree to the whole thing. While he was still hesitant, Billy was honest, and was able to vouch for what Carlisle had done to help his, sort of, family. With both the support of the older werewolf, as well as Jacob’s younger friends, who had gotten to know and had come to like Edward, the rest of the pack agreed to the barbecue. If it was only to satisfy curiosity about Jacob’s claims about the Cullens, it didn’t really matter to him, it was better than nothing. 

Those in charge of their own kitchens were slightly skeptical about a man who didn’t know how to eat cooking the food for all of them, so they had taken to deciding that they would bring things from home to the party as well. In the end, Carlisle had offered to pay for everything, and the werewolves had decided to simply agree with him: on one condition. Thus, Carlisle went shopping with five members of the local tribe, and the food shoppers returned with more than enough food. Billy, who had gone with them to shop, told Jacob that Carlisle was impossible, and continuously argued that more food was better than less, and that the members of the tribe could always bring the leftovers home to eat the next day. It was, Billy had said, like the opposite of shopping with a fussy mother, where the whole ‘we have that at home’ had been replaced with ‘grab three just to make sure.’ 

It was lucky for the two decently new boyfriends that it took another week to actually put the whole plan of the event into real motion, because Jacob really was in no state to help, and neither was Edward. They sort of both agreed that they felt responsible for the event to some degree, and wanted to be of help, but it had been a pretty rough week for the both of them. 

It wasn’t unusual for Edward Cullen to skip a week of school, but Jacob made sure that Tyler actually relayed the information of how he was just a bit sick and would come back, to the teachers, because he generally didn’t tend to miss out on school. He felt a bit guilty over missing out on a whole week, but in the end figured he’d have to deal with that later. Edward had been more worried than usually, but that was mostly because he actually cared about passing now, and Jacob had assured him they’d catch up together. 

It was strange how a person who had in a sense meant a lot could just vanish out of your life so quickly. 

Billy had told Jacob that Bella had moved away from Forks, and back to her mother. Other than that, they hadn’t heard a thing about her from Carlisle after that day, so they really didn’t even know what happened. Jacob felt like a part of him wanted to know more, wanted to know her side of the story, because if all of this had taught him something, it was that the truth couldn’t just be viewed from one viewpoint. 

However, his dad assured him, and was probably right, that he shouldn’t need to know, that it wasn’t important to him and Edward, especially Edward. Just like that, Bella was out of their lives, and a person who had meant... something to them both was slowly but surely disappearing from their minds. Jacob had finally realized that it was for the better, and probably the way it should be. Bella’s life, her own story, didn’t just end because she was out of theirs, she wasn’t less a person, but that did not make him or Edward in any way obliged to be involved with her when it was hurting them.

Right there and then Jacob felt like his memories of her were poisoned with all the hurtful things she had done more recently to someone he loved, but maybe one day, when they were far past all this, he could appreciate who she used to be again. A person was constantly changing after all, for worse or better, so there should be a way for him to cherish what he used to cherish, and still know why it was important that it ended and she left. 

He wouldn’t force Edward to do the same, it was something he’d probably feel comfortable with himself, but there was no reason Edward should have to force himself to think anything good of her at all. It was hard enough for him to accept that she had hurt him so very badly on her own accord, and that it wasn’t all his fault in the end. Edward needed to heal and find his own life and way without having to think of her at all.  
  
That was not to say she wasn’t still affecting Edward, not to mention that Jacob himself could feel it too. Confrontations always seemed so easy when they were displayed in movies and TV shows, it was often what people wanted to watch. The so-called drama was the highlight of the show. A real confrontation was a clustered mess of emotions and pain, like a shock which couldn’t even really be comprehended until it came creeping back much later. He felt pretty out of it, his emotions were all over the place, and he had little to no energy for anything at all. In a sense, being sick for a week might have been the truth to it. Edward was much worse off, but even Jacob knew that the healing period after the damage was mandatory, and as important as healing from a physical injury, it wasn’t bad in itself, it was something the two of them would manage past together. 

It had been a relief when Carlisle had been so eager about the barbecue idea that he had begun taking it into his own hands. It had been an even bigger relief when Jasper had stepped in to help. Jacob had been surprised with the initiative, but he had very much welcomed not being in charge of things in the end. He really did have to admit to himself that he and Edward weren’t really in the state to manage all of it on their own, and should appreciate the help.

On the other side, the werewolves seemed passively eager to come to the barbecue party, with the exception of his pack, who were curious beyond belief to meet all the other vampires. They had after all come to like Edward, why wouldn’t they like the others too? 

Time seemed to fly past, and the evening of the barbecue came. When Jacob and Edward came down from Edward’s room, where Jacob had been utterly defeated in a game of Monopoly, the men of the Cullen family, and Jasper, who did not share their surname, were working on moving things out to the neutral territory where the party would be held. Rosalie had no intentions of joining the barbecue, and so she was sitting on the sofa, reading a magazine, while the others worked. 

“Do you need help with anything?” Jacob approached Alice and Esme, who had ended up in the kitchen. Esme was in charge of handing out things to be moved, and Alice was in charge of the giant bag of snacks which Carlisle had gathered together. She held it like a big teddy bear, looking as absent as always. Upon him asking, she hugged it tighter, causing the death of at least some crisps within those snack bags. 

“That would be very helpful, yes.” Esme smiled at him as she picked up a cool bag with different types of meat in it. She then stopped and looked Jacob over. “It… might be heavy for a human to carry…” She glanced between the meat and the teenager, clearly uncertain of how much he could actually carry. “It might be better if I hand it to Edward.” 

Edward, who had been passively chatting with Alice, looked over as he heard his name. His adoptive sister was telling him of a snack which had a very cute cartoon cheetah on it. It was cool, because it had sunglasses. 

“Come on now, I didn’t grow this large and this strong to have my tiny boyfriend get to have all the glory.” Jacob motioned for the cool bag with a grin on his face. “I can handle it.” 

Behind him, Alice giggled, so he turned towards her. She smiled at him, leaning her head to the side as she did. “I can’t tell you, I’m not supposed to tell you the future.” 

“...Cryptic, but fair.” He accepted the bag, and turned to find Edward. The next thing he knew, he was lifted up, bag and all, as his vampire boyfriend smiled at him in that absolutely adorable manner where he could see the vampire teeth. 

“Don’t mind me,” Edward said. “I will just carry my huge boyfriend then, if I’m not allowed to help with the bag.” 

“Oh, I’m certain that there are other things to carry than me, Ed.” Jacob couldn’t stop smiling at the other. 

“Yes, Edward, dear, can you carry these beverages? They need to be taken out as well.” Esme brought up a huge bag of sodas, which looked more than a little heavy, with an ease that should not be allowed from her tiny little arms. Edward reluctantly placed the werewolf down, and picked up the bag with sodas instead. 

Together with Alice, they walked over to the clearing where the party was going to be held. Jasper and Carlisle were trying to raise the tents, while Emmett was making his way back and forth with various items needed for the barbecue. 

“Yo, Jake.” Emmett stopped when he saw them. “We rented a bunch of foldable chairs and tables from the same place with the tents, and we have no clue how to get them up and steady. Could you help with that before disaster strikes? They have a hard enough time setting up the tents.” He whispered the last words, as Carlisle and Jasper stopped what they were doing and looked at the directions once more with skeptical faces. The company had offered to set the tents up for them, but Carlisle was too excited about the prospect of building them himself, so the rest of the family reluctantly watched the professionals leave after delivering the corpse of the tent for them to revive. 

“Ed, you help me carry things, it’s boring alone.” Emmett turned towards Alice and nodded at her. “You keep on guarding those snacks.” 

Jacob agreed to the new arrangement, and proceeded to head towards the chairs and tables when he caught scent of something. Everyone in the clearing seemed to catch it at once, and they all turned towards the forest. Next thing they knew, the first werewolf entered the clearing, followed by the rest of his small pack. Jacob smiled at the leader. “The party doesn’t start until six, Sam.” 

“This is neutral territory.” The werewolf transformed back into his human form, and spoke as he reached out to grab Jacob’s hand in a greeting. “And we figured that we could help.” 

“Hey Edward, what am I thinking about?” Behind Sam, the wolves turned into people, and began to get dressed. They had carried bags of clothes in their mouths while in their werewolf forms. Jacob wasn’t bothered at all by them being naked, but he could smell how confused the Cullens were. When he turned to look, he noticed that Emmett’s face was red, and that Jasper seemed flustered and bothered, while Carlisle looked intrigued. Jacob assumed that he hadn’t actually seen a werewolf transformation before, and was likely very fascinated. Alice looked the calmest, but she was also, definitely, the type of person who would just forget to put on clothes sometimes unless someone reminded her. 

“Barbecue.” Edward responded with a smile to the young woman’s question. 

“Damn straight!” She howled with laughter as she pulled her pants on. 

“Where do you need help?” Sam asked, trying to remain professional as he was pulling his shirt back on. 

“Your shirt is inside out.” Another werewolf, by the name of Seth, pulled on Sam’s sleeve to get his attention. 

“...” Sam licked his lips and pulled his shirt off again. 

“We need help with the folding tables and chairs, and they need help with carrying, and with setting up the tent.” Jacob pointed at the items as he spoke about them. 

“I’ll help carrying!” The young werewolf woman flexed and made her way to Edward and Emmett. 

“I happen to be a master at raising tents.” Seth grinned as he waved to Carlisle and Jasper. Carlisle waved back happily. “Mind helping me over there, Sam? I am so not getting stuck with the leader of their pack alone.” The last words were whispered to the packleader, and Jacob saw how Sam barely managed to hold back from making a displeased expression. 

“...I’ll… come with you.” He agreed, finally, and made his way over to the two vampires, following Seth with somewhat heavy steps. Sam really wasn’t good at hiding his emotions, he was very honest that way. 

“Now who do I recruit to join my army of chair folders?” Jacob turned back to his pack and immediately got a few volunteers. Two more joined Emmett’s group of carrying things, and so the pack was divided up to help with the chores. 

The werewolves were all very helpful, they undertook whatever task they received with enthusiasm and took pride in finishing quickly. Jacob had to tell them to slow down a few times when they ended up in chair folding competitions. There weren’t that many chairs to begin with, and they most certainly didn’t need the chairs caving in on the poor people who did try and use them later that evening. 

Over by the tent raising station, Seth and Sam were doing a pretty good job. Seth had managed to secure a spot with helping next to Jasper, and Sam was stuck by Carlisle’s side. Jacob could hear Jasper and Seth talk, and although he couldn’t quite make out all the words, or was he trying to, it seemed that the two got along. Sam was seemingly trying to avoid speaking with Carlisle, but Carlisle was asking him details about the werewolf transformation. He was being very respectful in not asking personal details, but far better at keeping the conversation scientific. If supernatural forces now could be called anything close to ‘scientific.’ 

Whenever Emmett’s team came into the clearing with something new, their loud chatter and laughter could be heard from far away. Emmett clearly got along with the werewolves and they seemed more than excited to plan strength based challenges to try and pit not-man VS in-human-shape-nature. It even seemed like the werewolves had gotten Emmett to agree to wrestling them in their wolf shapes. 

Everywhere he looked, the werewolves and the vampires were getting along, even Sam looked decently comfortable. Jacob wasn’t sure that he had ever seen Sam completely relaxed, so he counted this scenario as a big win. 

The only thing out of place was Alice. She continuously drifted between the groups and just stared at them until the werewolves got uncomfortable. She didn’t try to talk to anyone but just continuously didn’t quite fit in or know what to do. She was still holding the bag of snacks, which she had yet to put down. Jacob noticed her drifting, but he was a little too busy with keeping the chairs from becoming traps that he couldn’t help her right there and then. It wasn’t as strange as one could imagine, seeing how social Alice tended to be normally. Normally, she wasn’t dealing with werewolves, and it was hard to pinpoint, but probably due to her powers, and her general state of being, she smelled rather off, and it was likely hard for the werewolves to not be cautious around her. 

More and more people from the tribe were steadily appearing, and the clearing was continually being filled with the chatter of many voices. Billy and Charlie were among the first to arrive, and Jacob noticed how the two men didn’t look entirely uncomfortable speaking to Carlisle. The scent of food came with the guests who had brought it with them, and the food carriers had to chase away the younger werewolves from the food table so as to not have them start before everyone else.

The evening was slowly settling in, and the grill was started. Some from his tribe walked around the clearing to set lanterns into the trees to combat the darkness, as not everyone was able to see in the dark. When the scent of meat and vegetables began to fill the air, the atmosphere was nothing like Jacob had worried about, it was loud, pleasant, and generally happy. 

Jacob had ended up quite in the middle of the crowd, and he had talked and joked with a lot of people from his tribe, but it was quite a relief for him to be able to pull back and go stand in the outskirts of the clearing. He was satisfied with the break from speaking, and he could now finally try out some of the food which he had gathered on his paper plate. As he stood there, he took the time to look out over the people gathered, smiling at what he saw. 

Carlisle was standing next to the grill, speaking to Charlie and Billy. Charlie had offered to help with the barbecue part of the barbecue party, and he was doing a much better job than the old vampire was. The three men were even laughing over jokes as Charlie handed on a grilled corn on the cob to an outstretched plate. It seemed like Carlisle wasn’t even asking inappropriate things, but instead talking about a much more relaxed topic. Carlisle had become an excellent victim for the two dads to retell all their dad stories to without having to hear the complaints over how many times the listeners had heard it before, it was pretty ideal. 

Emmett was Jacob’s werewolf pack’s new favorite thing. It hadn’t taken them long to find the vampire fun company, and Jacob could see them by the other end of the clearing, engaging in another wrestling match. The older werewolves were shaking their heads at the childish enthusiasm of the young ones, but the howls of laughter and cheering which filled the clearing as Emmett managed to wrestle another big beast to the ground really added to the festiveness of the evening. Jacob could see the vampire’s proud grin as he stood up and flexed to the audience, making them howl even louder with appreciation for his physique and strength. Jacob was rather glad he couldn’t hear all the horny thoughts he knew his pack to be having about their newly crowned honorary werewolf friend. He saw how Sam took off his clothes and stepped into the ring in his werewolf shape, ready to try his powers against Emmett. Jacob took the choice of action as the packleader being alright with the vampire being a honorary member of his pack. Really, it almost seemed like Emmett was meant to be a werewolf all along.

Esme had found company with some of the older women of his tribe, they had sat down a little further away from the whole party and seemed to be discussing the history of Forks. Esme was clearly very interested in the topic, but Jacob had made a point out of trying not to listen any more than he needed to. Which was not at all, so he wasn’t even sure if they were still talking about Forks at this point. Maybe they had moved on to the history of America for all he knew. That was sure to be an emotional topic which he wasn’t quite ready to take part of during that evening. 

His eyes wandered to Jasper, who looked more comfortable than Jacob had ever seen him. The vampire was calmly speaking to some of the middle aged werewolves and tribe members, rather than the young group which favored Emmett. Jacob had no idea what they were talking about but he noticed that the vampire was leading the conversation. By his side, he had his girlfriend-and-wife, and Jacob realized that they looked the complete opposite to how they normally looked. Alice wasn’t leading the conversation or speaking for Jasper, he was speaking for himself. Jacob even saw how he introduced her to some of the people he had talked to. It seemed very much like he was in his most comfortable element, his hunger for blood seemed almost forgotten. It was clear that it had a very positive effect on him to interact with adults rather than children or teenagers. Jacob couldn’t help but smile when he saw the vampire chuckle at something. From what Edward had told him about Jasper in the past, it was probably quite a boost to his confidence to be able to be the one to mediate and socialize, rather than needing Alice to do it for him. Next to Jasper, holding his arm, Alice beamed at her partner, like the most proud of mothers. She clearly didn’t feel left out even if she wasn’t directly participating in the conversation.

“You haven’t had anything to drink for a while, have you?” Next to him, the very familiar voice of his boyfriend spoke up. 

Jacob looked down to see Edward by his side, smiling up at him with a soft smile and a soda can in his hand. He held it out to Jacob, but he reached around him and pulled the smaller one close to himself, nuzzling into his hair with a happy sigh. Edward’s arms moved around his waist, and he felt the other nuzzle against his chest. 

“This is… really amazing.” Edward confessed after being silent for a little while. “I never imagined that people could come together like this and… just have fun. They adore Emmett, in… a lot of ways. Dad is having fun and… I’ve never seen Jasper like this. I’ve… never seen my family this happy.” The smaller hugged him tighter, with that kind of strength that his arm shouldn’t be capable of mustering. “I’m sure Rose will warm up to all of this sooner or later, she probably needs time.” The fact that Rosalie's problems couldn't be solved over a week wouldn't mean it would never happen, it was just not for them to decide for her. 

“And what about you, Ed?” Jacob couldn’t stop grinning. “Are you happy?” 

The other pulled his head from his chest and stood on his toes to kiss him, wrapping his arms around Jacob’s neck as they shared a kiss which Jacob hoped no one saw, as it was a little too passionate to be shared by others witnessing it. Jacob broke the kiss only so that he could put his plate to the side, before he pulled Edward with him deeper into the forest. When they were a little more hidden, he pushed his smaller boyfriend up against a big tree and captured him in another passionate kiss. When they finally managed to pull apart from one another, even Edward was out of breath, and he didn’t even need to breathe in the first place. 

“I’m happy.” Edward finally responded as he captured Jacob’s face in his hands, stroking over his cheeks with his thumbs. Jacob responded by pushing their foreheads together, letting his arms rest beside Edward’s body and against the tree. “Yes, I… think that I can be happy, that I can be more than just… stuck being alive, and actually start living.” He nuzzled his cold nose against Jacob’s. 

“Hey, Ed?”

“Mhm?”

Jacob grinned as he hugged him tighter. “I think you’ve finally gotten the right to call yourself a vampire. Congratulations, you are no longer a hamster. You and your family are all vampires now.” He chuckled as he heard Edward make an almost sobbing noise, and embraced him even tighter.

They kissed again, longer, more passionate, more excitedly, as the somewhat distant sound of the very successful barbecue filled the evening with laughter, howling and the scent of food. It was an evening which would be remembered fondly by everyone involved, where the treaty between the Olympic Coven and the tribe was honored in its truest sense. Jacob remembered the evening very, very foldly, but more than anything, he would always remember the feeling of his boyfriend’s crying against his chest, as Edward was overcome with the realization that he was, and deserved to be happy. That he had overcome the struggles of breaking free from an environment which made him depressed and lonely, and had dared stepping out into the world to seek his own happiness. 

Jacob knew, with all his heart, that he was deeply in love with the vampire, and he knew that Edward loved him just as dearly. Together, they truly were happy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There, an alternative story for Twilight written by two gay men, focusing on the concept of healthy relationships.
> 
> This might be an opportunity to confess that neither Teddy, nor Nathan, are Twilight fans, and writing this work has been a long journey of rereading old parts, searching Wikias and learning more about the characters. It has been forever since either of them read the books or watched the movies. The idea of the fanfic was prompted by the desire to address a lot of the problematic ideas of happiness and relationships seemingly promoted in the original work.
> 
> (Post edit:)The beginning of the sequel, [Dances with Werewolves](https://archiveofourown.org/works/25035193/chapters/60629149) is now published!
> 
> Thank you all for the enthusiasm and many comments, we both hope this work gives entertainment, joy, and helpful insight. ♡
> 
> Thank you Lyonzz for reminding us about Seth, to remember to add him to the work!
> 
> All the other works mentioned, especially those regarding vampires, such as the Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice, are strong recommendations for all of you who enjoy vampire fiction in general. Even the gothic classics can be worth a read, and since they aren't anymore copyrighted, most of them, such as Dracula, can be accessed free on the internet.
> 
> Lastly, if you identify with the struggles, or even the toxic behaviours mentioned and worked with in this fanfic, know that you're not alone out there, that your life never stays the exact same forever; you can change, everyone is constantly changing, and things can get better even if the first steps are always nearly impossibly hard. There is professional help and organisations to find, often nationally, but also internationally. Most important, your struggles matter, and you matter as an individual. You are never supposed to just be the side character in someone else's story, your story is the most important to you; it will twist, change and turn constantly, but it belongs to none other than you.
> 
> **You deserve to be happy.**


End file.
